I've Got You
by deluce
Summary: Brittany moves to Washington leaving Santana behind in Ohio. Heartbroken she seeks comfort in those around her. She never thought that it'd come in the form of the charismatic blonde girl who lives next door. AU DANTANA
1. Chapter 1

**This is a Dantana AU set in Lima during senior year. Sorry if anyone seems OOC. The title for this story came from the song _I've Got You _by _McFly_**

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**'Cause ****I've got you to make me feel stronger, ****when the days are rough and an hour seems much longer: _McFly- I've Got You_**

**One**

The last day of August had come around pretty fast, almost too fast and it had ended just as quickly. Now it was September first and was the last weekend of summer vacation, which everyone knew would be over all too soon, bringing the new school year around with it.

Outside, Lima, Ohio held the distinct smell of the summer. It smelled like the warm air tangled together in the smell of the freshly mown grass. That was a smell that Santana Lopez loved, even if it did play havoc with her allergies. Every time she was outside in the summer months, she couldn't help herself from breathing in the scent, she had always been the same way. Of course, as soon as she got back inside her own house, her complaining would begin. She'd complain about her scratchy throat and itchy, swollen eyes as well as her running nose. Her mom would always give her the same lecture on how she should start to use her common sense more and that she she should actually take her allergy medicine before she left the house. Still, Santana would never listen and the cycle would repeat itself.

The room was quiet, save for the sound of Santana gushing about how her vacation had been. She had been back since the very early hours of Wednesday morning, it was now Friday evening and since she was severely jet lagged, she was only just getting the chance to see her girlfriend, Brittany, since she had been back from her three weeks away.

Santana paced Brittany's room, talking animatedly about all of the things she and her elder sister, Carmen, had done. It had only been the two Lopez girls that had gone to Egypt on Vacation. It had been a present from their parents. The two girls hadn't really been able to see much of each other since Carmen had been studying Philosophy at Yale.

Which was a shame, given how close the two of them have always been. They skyped now, whenever they could and called each other when they found the time. They would send each other joking texts here and there and would usually send each other stupid pictures via Snapchat, but still, it wasn't the same. Because of this, their parents paid for them to both go to Egypt to allow them to have some catch up time, just the two of them.

Though, Carmen was still in Ohio, she would be leaving again soon in a couple of days, to get back to New Haven in time for the start of the new academic year. Santana was pleased that Carmen would be around for a little longer. Though they had just spent everyday with each other for the past three weeks and had threatened to kill each other more times than enough. She was thankful that she still had a couple of days left to spend with her sister.

She knew that once Carmen was back in Connecticut that it would be a while until she saw her again, she knew that the next time she saw her would probably be Thanks Giving, if she decided to come home for it (she hadn't the previous year). If not then Santana would have to wait until Christmas.

"Then, we rode on camels through the desert, seriously, Britt, Egypt is hot as balls." Santana said, she opened her mouth to continue her story before Brittany spoke up stopping her.

"San, just, take a breath. Please." She said with a small, weak smile playing on the corners of her mouth.

"Sorry." Santana said dryly, even though she wasn't sorry. Not even in the slightest bit. Egypt had been an amazing experience for her, the only down side to the trip had been that she had been away from Brittany for so long. "I know that I am probably boring you with this." Santana said bobbing her head slightly. "Have I been talking for too long now?"

"Only a little bit." She replied, "and while I am _really_ happy that you and Carmen had a great time, that's not the reason why you're over here." The other girl continued. "Sit?" She phrased it more like a question than anything else.

"...Okay." Santana said, drawing out the word as she sat down on the bed beside Brittany.

The blonde grabbed the stuffed camel toy that Santana had brought back for her from Egypt. Brittany sighed and started playing with the tail of the stuffed animal nervously. "We need to talk."

As those four simple words registered into Santana's mind it felt like everything around her had stopped. A wave of sickness washed over her. Santana knew, from personal experience, that no good ever came from _those_ words. At least, not when she was involved in the conversation anyway.

Every single time she had used those words on someone, or someone had used them on her, something bad happened. Usually, they resulted in her getting into a fight with some girl who had been confronting her over something- and sometimes someone- she hadn't actually done (not that any of the other girls ever believed her).

Other times, it was her using them on some boy as a way to end a relationship that hadn't actually meant anything to her. None of her relationships had even meant anything to her. At least, not until Brittany came along.

She had both used these words and had heard them countless times, but she dreaded the day when they would be spoken between her and Brittany. She had hoed that that day would never actually come.

"Why?" Santana asked, her voice cut through the silence that had fallen between them, she tried to look at the blonde but Brittany kept her head down, she still played with the tail of the stuffed camel, avoiding eye contact with the brunette.

Brittany took a deep breath, in through her nose and out through her mouth, trying to calm herself down. If Santana hadn't been worried before, she mos certainly was now. "We have to break up." Her words came out in a rush, almost as if her body was rejecting them and needed them to be out in the open, rather than polluting her mind. But, no matter how fast they flew from her mouth, Santana had still heard the words as clear as day.

"Why?" Santana asked again, feeling more than a little stupid for her lack of words. She had never been one to lose the ability to speak. No matter what the situation was, she usually had something to fire back at the other person. A heavy silence fell between the two of them once more, all that could be heard were the faint sounds from outside, that filed in through Brittany's open window.

Santana's eyes followed the sound, she stared out of Brittany's window, watching what everyone else was doing. Wishing that in that moment she was anywhere other than Brittany's bedroom.

It was only 7:00 p.m. and it was still rather light outside, plus it was incredibly warm, even for the time of year. Santana had found the weather in Ohio to be quite chilly and a refreshing change to the Egyptian weather when she returned.

But the people of Lima were still walking around half naked until late at night. She could hear a lot of young children who still roamed the street, their loud voices could be hears above everything else. Snippets of conversation filtered into the bedroom as a couples and groups of teenagers walked by. A car honked somewhere in the distance, along with the sound of sirens from police cars.

She could hear fain music coming from one of the neighbouring houses on Brittany's street, as people were still enjoying the last days of summer vacation.

When Santana had had enough of the cutting silence, she took a deep breath that hitched in her chest, she looked back at the blonde, still waiting for her to answer. Santana could feel her jaw tense as she couldn't stand to be ignored for any longer.

"Why Birtt?"She asked again, her voice taking on a much more demanding tone as it broke through the calm, Lima evening air. It felt wrong to be loud there, in that moment. Santana didn't want to be acting like that. But it was far too easy for her to to her yelling place, she had rage issues, everyone knew that.

Everything else around her was calm, summer had that effect on people. It made everything seem just that little bit more relaxed. Santana couldn't find it within herself to take on the same demeanour, especially when she had had to repeat her question.

Brittany sighed, "Do you remember, how I said that that job offer came up for my mom, but it was all the way in Oakedales, in Washington?" Brittany asked, Santana nodded her head slowly, "and that, we thought her getting it was a long shot, so we all just tried to forget about it and push it to the back of our minds?" Again, all Santana could do was nod her head. She was positive that she knew where this was going. "Well, she got it." Brittany said. Santana watched as tears started to brim in the blonde girl's eyes. "So, we're moving away."

Santana breathed deeply, keeping herself as calm as she possibly could. She could feel her jaw aching from trying to hold back her anger as well as her tears. "When?" Santana asked, hoping that Brittany was only telling her this now as a warning for when the time came, and that they actually had more time left to be a couple. Months, maybe.

"Tomorrow morning." Brittany said slowly, she took a deep breath and started to explain, "I found out about this while you were on vacation. I wanted to call you right away and tell you. But, my mom told me not to, because she didn't want me to bother you or ruin your trip." She continued, "I wanted to tell you as soon as I could, so when I found out you were back, I went to your house, but your mom answered the door and said you were resting because of the jet lag."

Santana could feel the tears burning in the backs of her eyes and her jaw ache only intensified as she though about how people had kept this from her for so long. Only to be told the night before Brittany was set to depart. "You're leaving tomorrow?" Santana asked, "like, you have to leave tomorrow or you just are?" She asked, "there is no possible way you can stay longer?"

Brittany shook her head, "I really wish that I could," she said, "my dad is staying her until the middle of next wee, but I have to go tomorrow because school starts on Monday and there are still a few things that me and my mom need to sort out with the house." Brittany said, "I just really don't wanna go." Her voice was barely even a whisper.

Santana pulled Brittany into a hug, wrapping her arms tightly around her neck, holding her as close to herself as she possibly could. Brittany's arms found their way around Santana's waist. She trailed her hand up and down Santana's back lightly. Something she knew had always soothed the girl. They stayed that way for a while. Cuddling each other in an easy silence.

Santana took a deep breath and spoke quietly, her mouth was only inches away from Brittany's ear. "What time are you leaving?" She asked, she moved away from Brittany to look at her. The blonde's eyes were red and bloodshot from her crying.

"My mom wants us to leave at 6:00 a.m," she said, "we have over a days drive to get there." She explained, my mom wanted to leave sooner but I said I wasn't leaving until I had had the chance to tell you." She continued, "tomorrow is the latest my mom is willing to leave."

"So, I won't be able to see you at all tomorrow?" Santana asked, her voice cracked as she tried to speak without crying.

Brittany shook her head, her expression was solemn, Santana couldn't help but notice the way Brittany's eyes looked. They were usually so bright and magnetic, but now she she spoke, they seemed lifeless and empty.

"That's why I am saying goodbye to you now." She explained. "I don't want to end this with you...But I feel like we have to." She said.

Santana nodded her head, still doing her best to fight against the tears that were brimming in her eyes. No matter how much this was hurting her. She wouldn't cry, not in front of Brittany. She fully intended to leave her tears for when she got home. "No. I get it." Santana lied, a small amount of bite creeping it's way into her tone of voice. "I mean, I'll be here and you'll be all the way in Oakesdale." She said, "no, no I understand. It wouldn't work anyway." Santana said. It was all lies though, and she knew that it was.

In all honesty, she didn't see why they could at least _try_ and make this work. They'd still be able to contact each other. Santana was more than willing to try and have a long distance relationship with this girl. She loved Brittany, she was absolutely sure of it, and she was certain that Brittany had felt the same way.

Santana didn't want the relationship to end there, heck, she didn't want it to end _at all._

Brittany was her forever, and she was Brittany's, or at least, that's what she had thought.

She had Brittany had been an item since the spring of their sophomore year. Their relationship had started out as nothing more than a friends with benefits situation, until feelings got in the way. When they decided to become a couple, they kept it a secret for a while, with Santana dating and sleeping with many boys, just to ensure that their relationship stayed under wraps.

Brittany had said that she understood that, she claimed that she didn't mind about the boys that Santana was seeing, even though it hurt her more than she cared to admit.

When they started their junior year of high school and they had been a couple for roughly five months, Santana decided that she wanted to be more open about things, Brittany had been ready from the beginning and had jumped at the chance to tell people she was Santana Lopez's girlfriend. Santana told her parents and they accepted her for it, she told her friends and they all accepted her, too. She had never had any doubt in her mind that the glee club would accept her for who she was, but still, it was nice knowing she had the support of them,

There were still some people who were in the dark about Santana being a lesbian, like her abuela.

Her abuela knew she was in a relationship, though the elder woman believed that she was dating a boy from Dalton high school named, Bradley.

Brittany, had been Santana's first girlfriend, well actually, Brittany had been more than that, she had been Santana's first legitimate relationship. All of the boys prior to Brittany had been nothing. They had just been tools to Santana, things that she could use at her disposal for status and popularity as well as keeping her biggest secret just that, a secret.

"San, it's not like that..." Brittany started she sighed and opened her mouth, starting to say something else. "I love you, really I do."

Santana leaned forwards and kissed Brittany with everything she had in her, hoping that without her having to say anything else, that Brittany would change her mind and would agree to continuing this relationship. "Can't we make this work?" Santana mumbled against Brittany's lips just before she pulled away from the blonde.

Brittany shook her head. "I don't think so." She replied, "distance would be no good for either of us." She explained.

"You mean you don't wanna be tied to somebody else while you're over there?" Santana asked, her voice only just audible.

"No. That's not what I mean." Brittany said, "honestly, I want to be with you. I just think that, a relationship needs closeness, we're not going to have that if I'm away." Brittany said.

"We'd manage it, Britt I know we would." Santana said, Brittany turned away from her, Santana knew that was the blonde's way of closing the argument. "I'm gonna miss you." Santana said.

Brittany sighed and said, "I'm gonna miss you, too." Brittany pursed her lips and looked at Santana, "we're gonna be okay, y'know?" She said.

"Promise me?" Santana said, she held up her pinkie finger, it didn't take long for Brittany to link it with hers.

"Promise." Brittany said, "I'll call whenever I get the time, and I'll text you, too." She said. "You're my best friend."

Santana smiled weakly and said, "I guess I'd better get going." Brittany nodded, "you've got an early start tomorrow and it looks like you still have stuff you need to do before then." She unlinked her finger from Brittany's and stood slowly, she smoothed out her dress and started to walk towards the door.

"I love you." Brittany said, Santana turned to her and smiled weakly.

"Me too." She replied, she left the room quickly before the blonde could say anything else to her.

Santana hated leaving it there, but there was nothing more she could do. Saying 'I love you, too' would have only made things harder on her. So, she settled for the colder two word reply. Something she had done in the past to deter people away from her.

She rushed out of the Pierce house hold and all but ran to her car. She started the engine and drove down the street. She willed herself not to look back at the large white house, as she reached the end of Brittany's street. She turned right to head to Lima Heights Adjacent and the tears started to free fall down her face.

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**So only a short chapter for my introduction, Dani will be in the next chapter, if you want another chapter. Should I continue this, yes? No? Please read and review. **

**P.S: My intention with this story is not to hate on Brittany, that's not what I want. That's why I had ****Santana and Brittany's relationship ended that way rather than them having a bed break-up.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Two**

Santana drove back to her house in silence, leaving her completely alone with her thoughts. Somewhere, deep down, she knew that that probably wasn't the brightest idea that she had ever had. Her thoughts often had a way of running away with themselves, even at the best of times. Santana had the tendency to over think and over analyse any situation that she was in. This would usually just result in her making herself an emotional wreck over even the smallest of things.

Her brain had taken to telling her that Brittany had wanted out of their relationship for a while now and that she had finally found the opportunity to end things. She couldn't help but think this way.

Santana had been having negative thoughts similar to these for a while now though, so they weren't exactly new to her, but now they seemed to be back sevenfold. She had never fully understood why someone who was so good natured, funny, caring and beautiful as Brittany would have wanted to be with someone like her, especially when she could've had her pick of people. To Santana, it just didn't add up right, she had always considered herself lucky to call Brittany hers. She tried to shake the negative thoughts from her mind, knowing that they weren't doing her any good and would only help in making her feel worse.

_It's gonna be okay. It'll work out in the end. _

Santana started to repeat this thought in her mind like a mantra, hoping that they would be able to prove her and her broken heart with some sort of solace.

She hadn't been crying for too long before she had managed to stop herself and pull herself back together. She didn't want to look like too much of a wreck when she got back home. From what Brittany had told her, she gathered that her mom already knew all about the move, which meant, if her mom knew then her dad and Carmen most likely did, too.

To Santana, the thought of her family knowing about it, made the situation that much worse. She knew that if she went home with her mascara and eyeliner trailed down her face, with bright red, bloodshot eyes then it would be a dead give away to how cut up she actually was about all of this. She wouldn't be able to lie her way out of this one anyway, but her current state would only make matters worse. If she went home looking like that, then she knew for sure that there would be no way to avoid her mother's sympathetic gazes. Which, right now, were something Santana just couldn't deal with.

She felt thankful that she had a mother who was as understanding and caring as her's was, she knew things could be worse, but still, Santana hated knowing that her mother was watching her closely when she was upset. If anything, seeing her mother looking at her in a sympathetic way, made her feel worse, because her being upset wasn't only affecting her. She wouldn't talk to her mom about this, she felt that she simply couldn't. It'd be far too awkward for either of them to talk about her relationship with Brittany. There was, in fact, only one person Santana actually _liked_ going to with Brittany related dramas, that was Carmen.

Santana knew that Carmen wouldn't judge her for reacting like this, that's why she went to her. She also knew that her elder sister would listen to whatever she had to say without any interruptions. Then, when Santana was done, Carmen would set to finding a solution to help Santana through whatever had caused her sadness. Carmen's comforting techniques were usually always the same, she would run down to the kitchen to gather as much junk food as she could get her hands on, then they would sit and watch the funniest film that they could find on Netflix. Santana didn't really have any problems with this, she knew that it worked for her. But sometimes, she did wish her sister would show a little bit more compassion when she was sad, rather than just eating their way through their problems.

Santana wasn't exactly sure how she was going to cope tonight, Carmen was out at a house party for one of her old high school friends' birthday. Leaving Santana in the house alone with their mom, while their father worked the night shift at the hospital for the third time that week.

She knew she would need someone to talk to. She wouldn't have ever admitted that she needed somebody, but it didn't make it any less true.

Her eyes were still stinging slightly, small sobs racked through her body and she could only just see where she was driving through her still teary eyes. Santana had never been more thankful to only live a ten minute drive away from Brittany. She pulled her car into the driveway and took a deep, shaky breath, hoping that she would be able to calm herself down further before she stepped back into her house.

She shook her head slightly and rolled her eyes at herself, letting out a humourless laugh. She had known that crying wasn't going to get her anywhere. Her tears weren't going to change the facts. She wiped just underneath her eyes with the backs of her hands, wiping away the remaining tears. Using the pads of her thumbs she tried to remove her smudged eyeliner and mascara, only managing to smudge them further along her face. She looked at herself one last time in the rear view mirror and sighed when she realised that this was the best that she was going to look right now. She just hoped that it would be enough to convince her mom that she was actually okay.

"Fuck it." She grumbled, she got out of her car, slamming the door behind her.

She started walking up the driveway to her house, she could hear a guitar being strummed quietly and a faint voice singing before it cut off and a raspy voice spoke out to her instead. This voice, would usually make Santana roll her eyes playfully while she dealt with it's owner, but today was a little different.

"Hey, sandbags." The voice said. Though Santana couldn't see her face from where she was now standing, she was sure that the owner of the voice would be wearing a playful, beaming grin; she usually was whenever she addressed Santana like this.

Santana turned slowly in the direction of the voice, her jaw had tensed slightly. She saw the shorted girl sitting on the front porch of the house next door to her own. This girl, Danielle Mitchell, had lived next door to Santana her whole life.

It was safe to say that Santana and Dani weren't exactly the best of friends. Despite that fact they they had grown up with each other and had spoken to each nearly everyday of their lives.

Santana didn't hate Dani, nor did Dani hate her. They never had hated each other, they were more frenemies than anything else.

The main reason for their lack of friendship was, they ran in different circles when they were at school, Dani had her clique; the quiet art kids who would keep to themselves. (they would usually sit outside in a small group on their lunch break and sing quietly while Dani played her guitar) and of course, Santana had her cliques; the glee club, some of the footballers and some of the cheerios. Santana had been a cheerleader but quit last year when she had finally had enough of Coach Sue's verbal abuse. Now, she only spoke to the football players and cheerios if she had a class with them. Most of the time she was sat with her glee friends.

"What do you want, Dani?" Santana asked, her voice was hoarse and tired. She sighed quietly while she waited for the other girl to answer her.

Dani was still strumming her guitar absentmindedly when she glanced up at Santana, catching a quick look at her before she turned away smirking slightly. "Well that's _very_ attractive." She said in a teasing tone.

"I can't help it. I guess I am just a natural beauty." Santana said with a slight shrug. She wasn't in the mood for their usual banter that would be passed back and forth between the pair of them.

Dani scoffed lightly, "What no snide remark?" She asked, "nothing snarky to say to me, _at all?_" She stopped playing her guitar and turned back to look up at Santana with a quirked eyebrow. As she got a better look at the girl, her features started to soften slightly. She carefully placed her guitar down on the floor by her feet, her eyes never left the brunettes face. She tilted her head to the side slightly and grabbed her bottom lip between her teeth, Santana had seen Dani with this expression on her face many times in the past, it never failed to annoy her. "What's wrong?" Dani asked, her voice shifting slightly, taking on a tone that held a small amount of concern for Santana.

It was odd to say the least for Dani to see Santana acting this way; usually she would have made a passing comment about the other girl by now. Of course, Santana's comments were never malicious and Dani had never taken any of them to heart. There was no real animosity between the pair of them, nor was there any animosity in the things that they would say to each other. They both knew that. It's just the way that they were with each other, it had been that way for as long as either of them could remember. And oddly, it seemed to work just fine for both of them.

But this was a side to Santana that Dani had never seen. In the seventeen years that they had known each other, Dani had never known Santana to be so distant.

"It's nothing." Santana said through a sniffle, she crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at her feet, avoiding eye contact with the other girl.

"That's bullshit." Dani said softly, "if something has got you feeling like this, then it's not nothing."

Santana sighed and looked up to meet Dani's eyes, "It's Brittany, okay?" Santana snapped.

"Why are you upset with Brittany?"

"I'm not upset with _her_." Santana clarified, "not really, anyway."

"So why are you upset? What happened between the pair of you?" Dani asked.

"We, uh, we broke up." Santana said.

"Really?" Dani said, her eyes widening slightly at the information, "did you break up with her?" Santana shook her head slowly, "wait, _she_ broke up with _you_?" Dani asked furrowing her brow., slightly confused at the turn of events. Santana nodded her head. "Why?"

"Because, she's moving to Washington tomorrow." Santana said.

"Oh. Right, that." Dani said quietly nodding her head slightly.

"Wait, you know about that?" Santana asked, her jaw tensing once more, Dani nodded her head, "Well that's just fucking awesome." Santana sarcastically, "even you knew before I did... How?"

"Brittany told me." Dani said shrugging halfheartedly.

"Did everyone find about this before me?" Santana asked.

"Probably, it's a small town, news can travel pretty fast." Dani said, "can I be honest, with all of this?" Dani asked, she didn't give time for Santana to respond before she said, "I really didn't think that you and Brittany would breakup over something like this."

"I didn't either," Santana admitted through yet another sniffle, "I actually wanted to try and do the whole long distance thing with her but, she wasn't really up for that..." Santana informed her.

Santana pressed the balls of her hands to her eyes trying to stop the tears.

"Well..." Dani said drawing out the word, "do you want to talk about this whole thing or...?" She asked hesitantly. She didn't exactly know what else to do. She didn't know Santana all that well. She knew the basic pieces of information about her and she knew that she walked around the halls of McKinley High like she owned the knew about Santana's reputation, but then again, most of the school knew about how 'notorious' Santana Lopez was, it was no secret that she had been around. But still Dani didn't _know_ her. She didn't know how to handle a sad and almost crying Santana. The only Santana that Dani had ever seen was a sarcastic or angry one. Up until that point, Dani hadn't even known that the girls was capable of feeling anything else.

"What, with you?" Santana asked.

Dani looked up at the brunette and shook her head, "No with The Pope." She replied sarcastically, "yes with me." She said chuckling. Santana looked around her, Dani rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, no one's gonna see you talking to me." Dani added with a small smile, "we can even go inside the house if you want. I'm home alone."

Santana shook her head before she trudged along her yard to join Dani on the front porch. She sat down next to with a quiet sigh. Santana took a deep breath, "Okay." She said, launching into her story. "Well it started when she asked me to go over to her house and I jumped at the chance because I hadn't seen her in over three weeks, right?" Dani nodded her head slowly. "So I go over and I spend most of the time I'm there, just gushing about how _great_ Egypt is. All the while Brittany is waiting for me to shut up so she can drop this bombshell on me."

"...Okay." Dani said nodding her head again, taking in all that Santana was saying to her.

Santana continued, "So she practically told me to shut up about it, only in a nicer way because y'know, she's Brittany and that girl doesn't have a bad bone in her body." Santana sighed, she could feel more tears threatening to make an appearance. "So I stopped talking and then she said 'we need to talk.'" Santana said holding up air quotations Dani turned her mouth down slightly when she heard those same four words that had sent panic shooting through Santana's system. "Then she broke up with me." Santana said, she blinked against the tears that burned her eyes, allowing them to fall down her face once again.

Dani sighed and held her arms out to Santana hesitantly, Santana looked from Dani's arms to her face, before she reciprocated the hug, "I am such an idiot." Santana whispered.

"I don't think you're an idiot." Dani said shaking her head, she moved out of the hug, and ran a hand though her now blonde hair, when Santana had left for her vacation, Dani's hair had been a light bubble gum pink colour.

"Well I am." Santana said quietly.

Dani rolled her eyes at the other girl, "Well I'm not gonna sit here and argue with you about it." Dani said smiling slightly. Santana lips curled up in a weak smile that didn't quite meet her eyes.

An awkward silence fell between them, Dani took the time in the silence to look down at her chipped nail polish while Santana stared out into Dani's front yard. It was Santana who broke the silence first by saying, "Anyway, I am sorry that I interrupted... Whatever it was that you were attempting to do before you saw me." Santana joked quietly. "I think you might have been trying to sing, but I'm not sure." Dani let out a light laugh.

"That was lame for you, but I'll let you off tonight." Dani said with a light laugh.

Santana rolled her eyes, "I should get going." Santana said, "I know it's only early but my mami is expecting me home and if I don't show up soon, she'll go into panic overdrive." Santana lied.

The truth being told, Santana just didn't feel like spending anymore of her time sat outside, with a girl she barely even counted as a friend. For her liking, she had already divulged to much to Dani, not to mention the hug. It was something Santana hadn't expected when sitting down with Dani. But she couldn't say that she minded it.

Dani nodded, "Okay." She said, she gave Santana a slight knowing look.

"Well thanks for listening to me tonight." Santana said quietly.

"No problem." Dani smiled at her. Santana gave her a weak smile in return before standing up and dusting off her dress. She turned on her heel, so that she was no longer facing the blonde, she started walking back in the direction of her own house. "Goodnight, Santana." She called after the taller girl.

Santana waved over her shoulder while she continued to talk across her yard. Dani picked up her guitar and began to play it once more, singing quietly as Santana walked back into her own house.

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**Thank you to those of you who have reviewed, favourited and or followed it means a lot. Please read and review, let me know if you think anything could be improved, reviews are always a huge help. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Three**

The next morning, Santana opened her eyes slowly, she could feel them stinging far worse than they had done the night before. She had to fight to keep them open as she squinted against morning light creeping in through her curtains. She turned her head to the side slightly, wincing as she felt a harsh pounding pain shoot through her head as she moved it. she frowned and let out a small whine. Her squinting did little to help her head ache, in fact, it only seemed to increase the pain that she felt. She reached her arm out slightly, grabbing the clock that stood on her bed-side table. She tilted it slightly so that she could get a better view of the time. The bright green numbers flashing in her face only made her squint more.

It was 9:00 a.m. Santana let go of her clock, pushing it away from her slightly. She let out a low pitched groan, covering her face with her hands, hoping that she'd be able to defuse some of the sound.

Her heart grew heavy as the realisation that Brittany had now been gone for three whole hours sunk in. There was nothing that could be done about it now. The blonde was already three hours into her journey to Oakesdale, where she would be starting the brand new chapter of her life. A chapter, that didn't involve Santana.

For Santana's liking, it was way to early in the morning to be waking up. She wasn't much of a morning person, but then again, she never had been. Especially not on her weekends. But, this weekend in particular was going to be even worse for the girl. No matter how long she stayed in her bed, she still wouldn't feel like getting up and greeting the day.

She pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breathe. She decided that it was definitely, far too early for her to be laying in her bed thinking, or more moping, about any girlfriend, current or otherwise.

Santana rolled over so that she was now facing away from the window and her clock. Despite the amount of warmth that had flooded into Santana's bedroom that early September morning, she pulled her comforter all the way up to her chin. She had never been able to sleep without having some form of cover on her. No matter how warm it got, she had to be at least slightly covered; she had always found a sense of security in them.

Santana closed her eyes once more, hoping that sleep would soon once again consume her. She had spent half of the night crying, the violent sobs that had racked through her body had left her both physically and emotionally exhausted. She curled herself up into a tight ball, trying to get as comfortable as she possibly could.

She had wanted to make the most of what little time she had left to sleep. Santana knew that, not matter how much she didn't want to, she had to be up and out of bed again within the next two hours to start getting ready for the day. Every Saturday, without fail, Santana's abuela- her dad's mom- would visit the small family.

Her abuela, Alma, hated laziness; Santana knew that if she wasn't awake and dressed by the time her abuela arrived at twelve o'clock sharp, that her grandmother would be less than please and that she would take great joy in voicing her displeasure.

Santana felt torn about her abuela's weekly visits, though, her ambivalence towards them had only started over the last couple of years. On the one hand, Santana loved seeing her grandmother because, her abuela was a woman she had always looked up to and respected. Not to mention that Santana had a very close bond with her grandmother, they were very similar in many ways. But, on the other hand, she hated her grandmother's visits because, as Santana got older, she had started to notice that her abuela could be a very judgemental person, even with those that she loved. She would watch them closely, studying them. She'd quickly pass judgements on them, for even the smallest of things.

That's one of the reasons why Santana was so intent on keeping her abuela in the dark about her being a lesbian. She didn't know how her grandmother was going to react to that little piece on information, fear of the unknown was another huge factor in preventing Santana from telling her. She knew her abuela was a religious woman, another reason stopping her from telling her abuela the truth. But, Santana knew that while ever her abuela didn't know her secret, she couldn't pass her judgements on her, that suited Santana just fine.

Santana had a huge fear of judgement. Her abuela getting to know worried Santana everyday because of that reason. She knew that sooner or later she would have to tell her grandmother about her sexuality, she couldn't keep it hidden forever. She just hoped that it would be later and that she would be the one to tell her abuela rather than someone else.

That was one of the things that Santana hated the most about Lima. It was a small, fairly conservative town and people talked. She was surprised that her grandmother hadn't already heard about her and Brittany through the grape vine. She was thankful, but surprised, none the less.

She tried to clear her mind, pushing her worries as far behind her as she could by taking another deep, shaking breath. She breathed in through her nose and let it out through her mouth. She repeated this action a couple of times, feeling her nerves slowly edging away from her.

She had wanted to focus on sleeping and sleeping alone, though her brain didn't seem to want the same things for the girl, there were just far too many things she could be stressing about. She had figured that if she shut her mind down completely, that her negativity and worrying would leave her alone.

She couldn't have been more wrong even if she had tried to be. Her brain seemed determined on giving her a heavy feeling in her stomach as her worries seemed to increase the more she tried to relax. As soon as one worrying thing left Santana's mind, it was quickly replaced by another. Leaving her feeling anxious and slightly sick.

_Typical, just, typical. _

She opened her eyes again, though this time, she forced herself to sit up in her bed. Her covers fell down her body, crumpling in a pile near her waist. Santana winced slightly as the pain in her head increased once she was at up right. She was just thankful that her mother kept a stock of pain killers in the house. She was sure that she would be needing to take some before the day was over.

She ran a hand through her dark, messy hair and looked around her untidy bedroom. She wondered how it ever got to be that bad, she sighed as she looked at all of the empty water bottles, food cartons and plates and glasses. She screwed her face up at the sight before her and made a quick mental note to clean it up after her abuela had gone home later that day.

She pushed herself out of her bed with another low groan and sluggishly made her way into the bathroom, she set the shower running, she stood with her arm extended, waiting for the water to heat up to the perfect temperature. She removed her arms from the stream of water and rid herself of her boy shorts and tank top that she had slept in. She deposited them in the laundry hamper, before turning to face the small mirror. She brushed her teeth before stepping into the shower.

As the water hit her body she sucked in a small amount of air through her teeth as the heat took her breath away slightly. She tipped her head backwards, and closed her eyes while the water ran down her face, she rubbed at her eyes removing small amounts of water that had seeped through into them. She showered as quickly as possible using the hot water to rid her off her stress and worries.

She went back into her bedroom, she dropped herself down at her vanity and looked in the mirror. She took in the sight of her tired expression, her eyes were still bloodshot and stinging from the water. She noticed that she had dark circles under her eyes from where she had hardly slept since being back from Egypt.

She sighed, before she started to dry her hair, allowing it to maintain some of it's natural curliness, she tied it in a loose side ponytail and pulled on her outfit for the day; a pair of black skinny jeans, a white tank top and a pair of dark purple high top Converse

She stood from her vanity, not bothering to apply any make-up that morning; it wasn't like she was trying to impress anybody anymore. She didn't care how she looked.

She grabbed her phone from her bed-side table and unlocked it, hoping to see some form of contact from Brittany, much to Santana's dismay, there was nothing. She sighed and slipped her phone into her back pocket.

Santana walked down the stairs, the pounding in her head seemed to pulse with every step that she took. She placed two of her fingers on either side of her head and massaged her temples, something that her mom had told her to do multiple times in the past whenever she had a head ache.

It seldom worked for her, but, there was no harm in trying.

When Santana reached the kitchen she peeked her head around the door and scanned the kitchen for any sign of life. Unfortunately, Santana caught sight of her mother making coffee. She had been hoping that the kitchen would be empty, that she would be the only one awake at this time. She had avoided her mother last night, knowing that it was more good look than management that she had been able to escape after she had come home from Brittany's house and from being sat out side with Dani.

_Santana had closed the door behind her with a light click, trying to remain as quiet as she possibly could. She took a deep breath, preparing herself for the onslaught she knew was bound to come her way if her mother saw her. She knew that her mother would be nothing but overly sympathetic for her. She hated that fact, but it was a fact that her mother would want to be there for her. She knew that her mom was only doing what she though was best for her daughter. But, it still wasn't what Santana wanted from her. _

_She rested her head back against the door and closed her eyes tight shut. "Santana?" Her mom called from the kitchen, the sound of her mother's voice made her eyes spring open. _

"_Yes, mami. It's me." Santana replied with a sigh, whishing that she had spent longer talking to Dani, the girl had said she would listen to her. She wondered if it was too late to run out of the house and go next door. Before Santana had time to do anything else her mother was in the hallway engulfing Santana in an overly tight hug. _

_Santana had always thought that hugs only made things worse. It was something that had developed in her through personal experience, even the hug from Brittany had only served in making things harder for her. Santana had been truly surprised in herself when she had accepted the hug from Dani. She hadn't wanted sympathy in any form from the girl, but she did appreciate it. She'd have been laying had she said other wise. _

_For reasons that Santana didn't quite understand, she would have rather been talking to Dani still than dealing with her mother. She had never wanted to talk to Dani before, unless she was throwing joking insults her way. _

"_Oh, mija," her mom said in a sympathetic tone, she pulled out of the hug slightly, her dark eyes scanned Santana's face. "How are you?" She asked, tilting her head to the side just like Dani had. _

_Santana supposed that the apparent 'sympathetic head tilt' was in fact, a real thing. _

"_I'm fine." Santana said shifting herself from her mother's arms. "Well maybe not_ fine_, but I will get through this, I'll manage." She lied. Truthfully, Santana didn't know if she was going to manage, for a long time now, Brittany had been a constant thing in her life. Even when they were nothing more than friends, they spent every day with each other. _

_Brittany had been her anchor, she had always been her anchor. She had kept Santana grounded. _

_Santana didn't know how she was going to cope, or if she was even going to cope. Brittany hadn't only ended their relationship, she was gone, Santana wouldn't even see her in passing in the hallways at school or on the street, and that made things harder for her. _

"_Oh, I hope so." Her mom said. _

_Santana sucked in a breath through her teeth. "I think I am just going to go to bed and watch some old movies." Santana said with a small shrug." _

"_Okay then, sweetheart." her mom said running a hand through Santana's hair. _

"_Please stop petting me, I'm not a dog." Santana said in a sarcastic manner, making her mom laugh weekly. _

"_Okay, well if you need anything you know where to find me." _

_Santana nodded, "Honestly though mami, I think I'll be okay." She said, she flashed her mom a quick smile before walking away from her. _

Santana sighed, knowing there was no way to avoid her mom this time around. She would have to pass through the kitchen at some point in the day. Santana slowly made her way into the kitchen, hoping that her mom wouldn't be as interested as she had been last night.

Her mom looked up to the door and gave her daughter a small smile as she entered the room, "Good morning chica," her mom, Maribel, said. She got another cup out for Santana and started to make her a cup of coffee. "Are you okay?" She asked, titling her head slightly.

_There it is. _Santana thought before lying, "Yeah, I'm good." She said with a small head bob.

"Really?" Her mom replied quirking an eyebrow at the girl, Santana nodded her head slowly.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"You don't look it." Her mom said casually.

"Gee thanks." Santana said sardonically, "that's the type of thing you want to hear." Santana said.

"I just mean, you look tired." Her mom said.

"I'm not wearing any make-up." Santana said with a shrug.

"That must be it." Santana's mom said, giving her daughter a knowing look before pouring another cup of coffee and handing it over to Santana. Her mom sighed and said, "I know you might not want to talk to me, but I am here for you, you know?"

Santana nodded slowly, "Yeah. I know." She said, it was true. Santana did know that she could go to her mom with a lot of things. But this wasn't one of them. Relationship problems and post relationship problems were just something that Santana couldn't share with her mom. "I think I'm just gonna go sit outside, get some air." Santana said.

Her mom nodded, "Okay." She said, as Santana got to the door her mom called out to her, "Santana?" The darked haired girl turned around and sighed. "It'll get better." She said.

Santana nodded, "I know." She said, she had told herself over and over again last night that things would get better and that in the end everything would work it's self out. She had said it more as a coping method than actually believing her own words. For the most part, it had worked.

Santana walked through the door, breathing in and out slowly, composing herself before her tears had chance to even sting her eyes. She held her coffee cup tightly in both hands, allowing the hot pot to burn her skin slightly.

She sat herself down on the wooden bench on the porch, feeling thankful that her father had fixed a cushion to it. She placed her cup of coffee between her knees and held it there while she grabbed the blanket off of the back of the seat and wrapped it around her shoulders.

Though the sun was bright, the slight breeze held a chill to it- one she hadn't felt while she had been inside the house. The breeze signalled that fall was starting to make it's way back to Lima, much to Santana's dismay, she had always much preferred the summer and spring months.

She looked at the clear blue sky, and breathed in the remaining smells of summer, that were soon going to be missing. Santana brought her cup up to her lips and took a large gulp from it, the searing liquid burnt the inside of her mouth and her throat.

She placed the cup on the floor, hoping it would cool down soon enough.

She leaned her head back on the bench and closed her eyes, she listened to the birds chirping happily in their trees and the rustling of the leaves.

A voice pulled Santana from her thoughts, "Well hey you." Dani said brightly, Santana lifted her head and opened her eyes at the sound of the other girl's voice. Dani smiled at her before she pulled her ear buds out and turned off her music.

Her breathing was ragged and her cheeks were a light shade of pink. Santana noticed a thin sheen of sweat across the shorter girl's collar bone. It annoyed Santana slightly, that even with no make up on and fresh from a run, Dani still managed to look good.

Santana threw her a weak smile and waved half-heartedly, "Hi." She said.

Dani's smile seemed to grow as she took in the sight of the girl, "You look nice today," she said.

Santana looked down at herself and then back up to Dani, she furrowed her eyebrows at the other girl, "Seriously?" She asked, Dani nodded her head slowly. "I kind of thought I looked like shit." She admitted.

Dani chuckled and shook her head, "No, trust me, you look good." She said.

"Thanks."

"So how are you?" Dani asked, she walked towards the girl and joined her on the bench.

Santana shrugged, she had been able to play it off with her mom, it had been easy for Santana to tell her that she was feeling okay. But last night, Dani had seen Santana in her emotional state, Santana hadn't let her mom see her that way, nor would she let her mom see her that way. For some reason, no matter how much she wanted to, Santana didn't feel right lying to Dani about how she was actually feeling.

"Well, I'm not crying anymore," Santana offered with a humourless laugh

Dani nodded her head slowly, "Well, at least there's that then." She joked, Santana's lips curled up slightly.

"It hurts, Dani." Santana admitted. The blonde opened her mouth to say something to the taller girl, but before she could form any words, Santana was hugging her again, her arms weaved around Dani's neck pulling her closer. Dani slowly wrapped her arms around Santana's waist and ran her fingers up and down the girl's back slowly.

Dani turned her mouth down in thought, she pulled out of the hug and took Santana's hand in hers, lacing their fingers together, pulling Santana up from her seat. "Come on, come with me."

* * *

**What do you think about this chapter? Love it? Hate it? **

**P.S; I know things are starting slowly at the minute for them, but I didn't want this to be too fast paced, it will progress further than this, I promise. :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Four**

Santana looked between Dani, to her house and then back to the blonde girl beside her. "Dani, I really appreciate all of this, but I don't want to impose." Santana said, "what will your parents say? I am sure they don't want random people showing up at the house." Santana said. She was just making feeble excuses. Truthfully, Santana didn't actually care what Dani's parents would think or say. She just felt slightly awkward going anywhere with the other girl.

It wasn't like she didn't want to spend time with Dani, because she did. The girl had been nothing but nice to her last night and again that morning. But still, it felt strange to her.

"Don't be stupid, you're not imposing." Dani said, "besides, my parents aren't even home. It's still just me in there, so don't worry about anyone else being around." She said. She gave Santana's hand a light squeeze and smiled at he reassuringly.

"Okay."

Dani started to walk to her house, slowing her pace down to match Santana's. She ran her thumb over the taller girl's slowly. Santana looked down at their entwined hands. It felt strange to be holding anybody's hand that wasn't Brittany, but it wasn't an unpleasant feeling, just different.

Dani only let go of Santana's hand so that she could unlock the door to her house. The blonde girl held the door open for Santana, who walked into the house sheepishly. Dani closed the door behind them with a light click.

Santana's eyes darted along the pure white walls of the hallway. Hanging on one of the walls were three large photographs. There was one of just Dani's parents. It was easy for Santana to see where Dani got her looks. She was very similar to her mother, the only ways the differed were that Dani looked younger and had slightly softer features.

The next picture on the wall, was one of just the three Mitchell children. They were stood in age order, Dani being in the middle of her elder sister and younger brother. She was the smallest of her siblings, she came up to her sister's ear and her brother's shoulder. Her siblings were a strong mixture of both their parents, Dani's sister swayed more to looking like their father, while her brother held more of their mother.

The last picture in the line of three on the wall was of the five of them. Dani's parents were stood behind their three children, who were again stood in age order. Dani's mother and father both had proud smiles on their faces.

Dani came to stand behind Santana, her line of sight followed the taller girl's until she too was looking at the line of family portraits.

"God I hate those pictures of me."

Santana looked over her shoulder and furrowed her eyebrows at Dani, she turned her head so that she was once again looking at the photographs. "Why?"

Dani shrugged, "I just _really_ don't like seeing pictures of myself, I never have." She admitted. "What makes it even worse is that we have to have new one's done _every_ year." She said, she nodded in the direction of the picture of her parents, "master's orders." She said sarcastically. She sighed, "we had our new ones done a couple of weeks ago, when Adriana was back from college. We should get those in about a week and then the pictures will get switched and my dad will get rid of those ones." Dani looked at the picture of the five of them and paused momentarily before saying, "moving swiftly on."

She walked away from the photo's and led Santana up the stairs and towards her bedroom. Santana hadn't really known what she had been expecting to see in Dani's room, but it certainly wasn't what she was greeted with.

The first thing Santana noticed about Dani's bedroom was the size of it, it was a fairly big room, bigger than her own. All but one of Dani's walls had been painted from top to bottom in white, the other wall- the back wall of the room- was painted top to bottom in teal. Most of Dani furniture was against the back wall; her closest, two chests of drawers- one of which was next to her bed, serving as a bed-side table. The head board of her spacious bed was against the teal wall, her bed faced the door.

As Santana looked around, her eyes fell on the several instruments that Dani owned, she had two acoustic guitars (a blue one and a light brown one), she had a deep blue coloured electric guitar, a black ukulele, a keyboard and a white bass guitar that had a vine leaf pattern running up the fret board.

Santana could see all of this from where she stood in the doorway, she hadn't dared move yet. The brunette watched as Dani entered the bedroom first. She opened the top drawer on the set she was using as her bed-side table, she threw her phone into it and closed it again quickly.

She turned around and looked up to see Santana standing rigid in the doorway, watching her closely. "You can come in, you know?" Dani said smiling at the other girl, "I didn't invite you over here so you could just stand there."

Santana nodded slowly and walked into Dani's bedroom, she took another look around it, taking in all that she could. Dani had a small white vanity, that was pressed against the wall opposite the window, giving her the best lighting in the room for when she got ready on a morning.

She had various things placed neatly on the surface of the vanity, her perfumes, body sprays, lotions and her makeup among many other things.

Everything in Dani's bedroom seemed to be well organised, it was slightly different than how Santana had her own. Usually, Santana would just throw things down as she walked into her bedroom. But Dani seemed to have a place for everything that she owned, keeping everything neat and tidy.

The blonde moved around her bedroom quickly, she grabbed some clean clothes from her closet before she spun around on her heel so she could face Santana. "I'll be right back. I just really need to get a shower." She said, "feel free to look through my DVD collection, I have them all in a drawer under my bed. Just out anything on, I promise I won't be too long, but it just saves you from sitting in silence."

Santana nodded, "Oh, okay thanks." She said, Dani smiled at her weakly before she moved around her to leave the bedroom, she turned right on the landing of the stairs and headed towards the bathroom. Santana slowly made her way over to Dani's bed. She admired her duvet cover; a black and white picture of the New York Skyline taken at night.

Santana sat herself down slowly, she sank into the other girl's bed slightly and ran her hands over the soft sheets. It felt odd for her to be in Dani's house, let alone in her bedroom, sitting on her bed. Santana personally never thought she'd see the day where she would be here. She took another look around the room, feeling more like and intruder than anything else.

Even though Dani had granted her with the permission to find something to watch, Santana didn't feel comfortable looking through her DVD collection and dictating what the girl should watch on her own telly, especially since what she and Dani were building was a new thing. She was used to speaking to the girl, but not in the nice soft way Dani had spoken to her last night and that morning. She was more used to the conversations that were solely insults and jests.

She hadn't known that Dani had it in her to not be sarcastic.

Instead of searching through her DVD's, she stood slowly and made her way to the collection of instruments that Dani owned. She had known that Dani was a pretty musical person and that she could play the guitar. She had never heard Dani sing though, but she wanted to, just to see if the girl was any good and had a hidden talent. She certainly had a lot of talent given the instruments she could play. Santana would never had expected that Dani could also play the ukulele, the keyboard and the bass guitar.

Santana hadn't heard Dani enter the room again, she had been far to preoccupied making her way around the instruments, she played with each one of them as she passed it, she pressed random keys on the keyboard and plucked random strings on her string instruments.

Making flat sounding notes and grimacing at the sound. Dani smiled as she watched Santana, who was currently playing with the strings on Dani's electric guitar.

"You having fun there?" Dani asked, her voice startled the other girl, Santana stepped away from the guitar abruptly, almost knocking the guitar out of it's stand. She caught it just in time straightening it out again. Santana opened her mouth to say something but closed it again, panic filling her system. A small smile spread across the blonde's face. "Do you play?" She asked as she approached Santana.

The brunette shook her head and visibly relaxed when she saw that Dani wasn't annoyed with her. "No, no I don't, I was just admiring." She admitted. She turned back around and looked at the guitar once more.

"Oh." Dani said, she walked over to Santana and stood next to her, looking down at the guitar.

Santana took a deep breath, she could smell the scent of Dani's pomegranate soap and shampoo on the other girl, fresh from the shower. Her breathing seemed to hitch as Dani got closer to her. "W-what, make is it?" Santana asked, not really knowing what else to do.

"Oh, he's a Gibson Les Paul." Dani said moving away from Santana slightly.

"He?" Santana asked furrowing her eyebrows.

Dani nodded her head and screwed up her face slightly. "Yeah, he's a he." She said, "With a name like Steve, you'd expect that."

"Oh my god, you named it?"

Dani nodded her head slowly, "Yeah." She said.

"Do any of your other's have names?" She asked.

Dani shook her head, "Nope, just Steve." She admitted.

"You're such a dork." Santana said rolling her eyes slightly.

Dani nodded her head, a proud smile forming on her face, "Yes, I am." She agreed. "So, did you actually find anything for us to watch or were you too busy man handling all my stuff?" Dani asked.

Santana furrowed her eyebrows, "Okay, I was not man handling."

"Oh please, you man handled." Dani joked, Santana shook her head slowly and smiled at the other girl.

"No. I didn't find anything to watch."

"Okay then, sit down, we are gonna find the worst things we can on Netflix, we're having a movie day." Dani said.

"Why?" Santana asked.

Dani shrugged, "Why not?" She said.

"Well..." Santana said drawing out the word.

"Do you have anything better in mind?" Dani asked, Santana shook her head slowly, "well then." She said, Dani grabbed her laptop and set it up, she climbed onto her bed and rearranged some of her pillows, trying to make it comfier for both of them. Santana stood playing with her fingers by Dani's instruments. The blonde rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, it'll be fun." She said, she patted the space beside her for Santana to join her.

She slowly walked to where Dani was sat and joined her on the bed, sinking into it slightly. She leaned back against the pillows and smiled at Dani silently thanking her. The blonde returned the smile, before quickly looking away and loading up the Netflix page.

Dani shuffled closer to Santana so that they could both see the categories and movies easier. They scrolled through a lot of them, talking about films each of them had seen that weren't suitable for the 'picking the worst movie we can' idea Dani had had.

"How do you feel about comedies?" Dani asked.

"I honestly think that some of the worst films I have ever seen have been comedies." Santana replied chuckling slightly. Dani and Santana both looked though the movie choices in the comedy section, "I think we have a winner." Santana said.

"What?" Dani asked. Santana pointed to the screen, "You really wanna watch a movie called _The Pill_?" She asked.

"Yes." Santana said, "you said we were going to find the worst film that we could," Santana pointed out. "The title alone suggests that that film is terrible."

Dani sighed, "Okay then." She said, she clicked on the movie and read the synopsis aloud to Santana.

"Yeah, I still really want to watch it."

Dani shook her head before clicking on the small play icon. She moved down into her bed, making herself comfy. She placed her laptop near the foot of the bed in a position where they both could see it.

Santana had been right with her movie choice, both girls did find themselves thoroughly enjoying the movie, though they weren't sure if they were enjoying it for the right reasons.

"This movie is so bad it's good." Dani said laughing.

"See what did I tell you?" Santana said, "you're looking for a bad movie, you see one called _The Pill_ and you've gotta go for it."

Dani chuckled and turned her attention back to the screen. "Seriously, what is wrong with this girl?" Dani asked, pointing to the leading lady on the screen. "I would be out of there so fast."

"I would have left first thing the next morning." Santana said.

Dani chuckled, "So you're a nail and bail type of girl?" Dani asked.

Santana rolled her eyes and laughed "Like you wouldn't have been out that early."

Dani gave Santana a look of mock offense, "Excuse me, I am a good girl." She said. "I wouldn't have even gone back to her house." She said.

Santana smiled and turned back to the screen to watch the movie. Dani moved closer to Santana as the movie progressed, Santana could feel Dani's hand against her own. It was all she could do to not lace their fingers together again.

Halfway though the movie, Santana felt her phone buzz in her back pocket. She shifted where she was sat and pulled her phone from her pocket. The small icon at the bottom of her screen notified her that she had a new text. Santana moved towards the end of the bed and paused the film.

"Hey, are you okay?" Dani asked.

Santana nodded her head slowly, "Yeah, I'm fine." She said, "it's just a text."

"Oh okay." Dani said, she tried to read Santana's expression.

"It's from Brittany." Santana said, she moved back up the bed to sit beside Dani again, she rested her head on the other girls shoulder, showing her the text, not fully understanding why.

**From Brittany: **

**Good morning, Sanny I miss you already. Love you. xx**

"Morning?" Dani asked quirking her eyebrow at the other girl, Dani reached into the drawer next to her and pulled out her own phone. "She does realise it's almost noon, right?"

"Well yeah, of course she does, but I always... Wait, it's already nearly noon?" Dani nodded her head slowly. Santana jumped up from where she was sitting on Dani's bed.

"Whoa, where's the fire?"

Santana chuckled dryly, "My abuela is coming today, very very soon actually." Santana said. "She might commit murder if I'm not there, she's like that." She continued, "and if she doesn't murder me, then my mami probably will."

"Why?"

"Because I told her that I was only going out to get some air, that was at like, nine-thirty. So just a little over two hours ago and I'm still not back yet. Plus, my abuela just expects _everyone_ to be there- if they can be- when she visits and if I'm not she'll make it hell for everyone." She turned her mouth down.

"Well then, I guess I'd better let you get going." Dani said, she pushed herself up and moved to the edge of her bed, shutting down her laptop, before she climbed off of her bed and stretched out her limbs.

"Yeah, probably."

Dani walked Santana to the door in silence, Santana turned to face Dani and smiled at her. "I'm really sorry for putting an end to the movie day." Santana said.

"It's fine." Dani said shaking her head. "You didn't put an end to it, not really anyway."

Santana smiled at the shorter girl, "I do really wanna know how that movie ends though."

"Yeah, I wanna know if she ever takes pill number two or not." Dani smiled.

"Guess you'll have to watch it and get back to me."

"Or you could come back over later and watch it with me?" Dani said.

"Are you sure, you don't have to..."

"Shut up." Dani said laughing slightly.

"Okay," Santana said, she furrowed her brow when she realised that that's all she seemed to be saying of late to the girl. Since when did she only have one word in her vocabulary?

Dani smiled "My brother will be back by then but, he'll probably just be in the den playing on his Xbox with his friends. So I might as well be alone again." She rolled her eyes.

"Okay, so I guess I'll see you later then?" Santana said, a small amount of uncertainty resided in her voice.

Dani nodded and smiled, "Yeah you will." She said, Santana turned on her heel quickly and walked across Dani's garden in the direction of her own house, she turned around and gave Dani a small wave by jiggling her fingers.

Dani waved back before retreating into her own house, spending the rest of the afternoon alone.

* * *

**Friendship has been sort of been established here, so, things will start progressing from now onward, I hope you liked this chapter. ****Thanks for the reviews, follows and or favourites. ****So, do you like it? Love it? Hate it? Let me know.**


	5. Chapter 5

**5**

Her abuela's visit had been an extremely uneventful one, but then again, they usually where. She never had anything of real importance to talk about, usually she just gossiped about the women that she called her friends. As Santana had predicted, she asked the two girls the same questions that she always did. Santana always felt that her abuela's visits were a lot like Ground Hog Day; it was just the same thing over and over again.

With her questions, she had earned herself many eye rolls from both Santana and a very hungover Carmen. Her abuela had asked the question that Santana had been dreading; 'are you still seeing that boy?' Santana had sighed and shook her head, she had explained the situation; that he had had to move away so he had ended things with her. Santana was just thankful that she had done so without crying.

What Santana hadn't been expecting was the abundance of cliché lines that her grandmother had replied with, she went on and on about how it was 'Brad's loss'. That had shocked Santana, but only because her abuela had always shown a huge disliking for Santana being in a relationship, she felt that Santana was far too young to be getting involved with boys, or anyone for that matter.

However, Santana had silently disagreed with her abuela, to her, it wasn't Brittany's loss, it was her own; Brittany had been the one to call things off. What hadn't shocked Santana was the string of unpleasant things that her grandmother had to say about teenage boys- and the majority of the male population.

When Carmen had heard about the breakup, she had tried to help her sister, but all of the things Carmen had to say about breakups only seemed to make her feel worse. It seemed that the only way Carmen seemed to know how to handle a breakup was to talk ill of the person that had ended the relationship.

She didn't need to hear people saying harsh words about the girl; it made her feel worse, because Brittany wasn't there to defend herself and generally didn't deserve them. All in all, the things they had to say to her about breakups made her feel worse. Mainly because she didn't want to listen to what they had to say.

Because of this, Santana had made the most out of Carmen having a hangover, she had loved seeing Carmen in that state. Santana had spent the majority of her afternoon trying to create as much noise as she possibly could. Whenever the pair of them were asked to make everyone a cup of coffee- as they frequently were whenever their abuela visited- Santana would accidentally on purpose, clang the cups together loudly as she carried them. She had done that just to see her sister wince from the noise. She would follow her actions up with a fake apologetic smile.

In all honesty, tormenting Carmen had been Santana's highlight of the whole afternoon. She knew that as soon as her sister went back to Connecticut in a couple of days time, that she would miss tormenting her. She had to make the most of what little time she had left.

Santana felt slightly hesitant now about going back over to Dani's house, she did want to, very much but that was mainly because she wanted to be away from her mom and Carmen. She didn't want to spend any more time with them, not when all one could do was ask her if she was okay, while the other one spoke badly about Brittany. That's what Santana had liked about the little time that she had spent with Dani over the past two days, she hadn't said anything mean about the taller blonde, because she knew that she had no reason to. There was no bad blood between Brittany and Santana, for which Santana was grateful.

Dani knew that talking bad about Brittany was no use. It certainly wouldn't make Santana feel any better, all it did was anger her; no one likes to hear bad things about the people that they care about.

Santana knew that it was Dani's approach to the whole situation that was making her want to go back and spend time with her. Dani hadn't expected Santana to talk earlier, the offer was there; if Santana really felt the need to talk Dani would be there, she had told her that herself. And though Carmen had always been the person that had helped Santana out with her relationship dramas, she found herself wanting to go to Dani about this one. Because talking wasn't a requirement and was merely an option.

She had already spoken about the whole Brittany thing, she didn't need to talk about it any more. Going to Carmen would mean she would have to, she didn't know the full story and Santana most certainly didn't want to have to tell it again.

She checked the time on her phone quickly. As per usual, her abuela had been at their house for the best part of the day. She had only just gone back to her own house and it was already 7:30 p.m. Santana contemplated changing her mind and just staying at home for the rest of the night. She was sure that Dani wouldn't mind, she had probably forgotten anyway. She was positive that Dani had only been taking pity in her and had been nice to her because she felt like she had to be rather than wanting to be. The thought hurt Santana more than she was willing to admit.

She sighed and walked into the living room sheepishly, "Mami," she said, her mom lifted her head looking away from the book she was reading. She smiled weakly at Santana, "Er, I'm going out somewhere." She said quietly.

Her mom quirked her eyebrow at her youngest child, "Where?" She asked, her mom knew Santana well enough to know that any time she went out she was usually going somewhere with Brittany or she was going over to Brittany's, it was a rarity for Santana to do anything without the other girl. "Where?" She asked, closing her book around her thumb saving her page.

"Err, a... Friend's house." Santana shrugged, she had tripped on the word 'friend' slightly, but she really hadn't known what else to call Dani in the moment.

Carmen slowly lifted her head up from the arm rest on the couch and furrowed her eyebrows at Santana, "One minute, you actually have friends?" She asked in a joking tone. Her voice still hoarse from her hangover.

"Yes." Santana snapped, "I have friends."

"Well, how long will you be gone for?" Her mom asked, ignoring the exchange between her two daughters.

Santana shrugged, "I don't really know."

"Will you be back home tonight?" Her mom asked.

"Err, probably." Santana said, honestly, these hadn't been things she had thought about, in her mind she was going to Dani's finishing the movie and then coming back. She just wanted out of the house, she didn't care how long she was gone for. "But don't wait up for me." Santana said. "Just in case."

"Hmm, okay mija, have fun."

Santana nodded her head. "I will." She replied.

She turned on her heel and headed out of the house, she trudged along the gardens, walking as fast as she possibly could. She stood outside of the Mitchell home and hesitantly knocked on the door. She shifted on her feet uneasily and let out a puff of air as she waited for the door to open.

Dani opened the door and smiled brightly at the other girl, "Hey." She said, her hair was now tied up in a high ponytail, parts of it had been left down to frame her face.

"Hi." Santana replied, she couldn't help but smile back at the girl. "I didn't know if you were still wanting to finish that movie or not?"

"Yeah, definitely." She said, "I wasn't sure if you were still gonna come over or not." The two girls stood looking at each other for a moment in silence, before Dani shook her head and said, "Oh er come on in." She moved to the side so that Santana could enter the house. "Are you hungry, there's a pizza in the oven. If you want some?"

Santana nodded her head slowly, "Yeah sure, if you don't mind?"

"You know what, I do mind and that's why I offered." Dani deadpanned, Santana glared at her jokingly, the shorter girl let out a quiet laugh, "Follow me." She said smiling. The two girl's made their way into the kitchen, Santana couldn't stop herself from looking at the pictures as she passed them, her eyes focusing more on Dani than anyone else. On the photographs in the hallway, Dani still had her dyed red hair. Santana had always liked Dani's hair when it had been red, not that she had ever let the other girl know that, she had always made jokes, calling her things like 'Ronald MacDonald' and some much cruder names. "Sit." Dani said pointing to one of the stools placed around the kitchen island in the middle of the room.

"So what type of pizza are we having then?" Santana asked, her eyes darter around the kitchen, taking in the sight black marble counter tops.

"It's a chili and chicken one, it's supposed to be quite spicy." Dani said lifting up the box for the frozen pizza. "Hope that's okay?"

"Yeah I love spicy foods."

"Me, too." Dani said, "My family hates it." She shrugged, "Usually I'd be eating this alone."

"No. The hotter the better."

Dani nodded in agreement, "That's what I say, too." She smiled, "Do you want anything to drink?"

Santana nodded her head, she watched as Dani made her way to the fridge. She pulled out two cans of coke, and walked back to the kitchen island, and slid one of the cans along it to Santana.

"So, how come your folks aren't here then?" Santana asked, "Are they on vacation?"

"Oh no." Dani said, "I'm alone a hell of a lot." She shrugged. "My parents work in Columbus every weekend, it's where the main office is for the company they work for or something like that anyway." She explained, "It's only a recent thing really, they started working out there on the weekends when I turned fifteen." She said, "It was part of a promotion deal, my dad got the promotion, but my mom works out there, too and helps him." She said.

"So, you have the house to yourself every weekend?" Santana opened her drink and took a large sip of it.

"Pretty much." Dani replied, "Adriana is away at college and only comes back for the holidays and my brother, Will, is out most of the time with his friends, leaving me alone to my own devices." She shrugged. "I very rarely go out on the weekends. Usually if me and my friends do anything we do it after school."

Santana was about to open her mouth to say something, when the oven made a small dinging noise.

oOoOo

"After you." Dani said, motioning for Santana to go up the stairs ahead of her. The brunette nodded once and started to walk up the stairs. Once she had reached the top she walked to Dani's door and held it open for the shorter girl who walked slowly, carefully into the room carrying the plate with the pizza on it.

When the girls entered the bedroom, Santana closed the door behind them and made her way to Dani's bed straight away, feeling a lot less nervous about being in Dani's house now. Dani handed Santana the plate while she loaded Netflix up. She placed the laptop on the bed in the same position it had been in that morning.

They made themselves comfy on Dani's bed while they ate the pizza, both of them watching the remainder of the movie, eagerly awaiting the outcome.

"Okay so what are your bets?" Santana asked quietly, "Do you think she'll take it or not?"

"Hmm," Dani said, "honestly, I don't know." She said shaking her head slightly. "She's crazy, so it's possible that she won't, not to mention the fact that she doesn't know about the second one yet," Dani said, "but, Fred's a sneaky bastard, we know this, so he might find away to get it in her."

"I think he already found a way to get it in her at the start of the movie." Santana said, "if you know..."

Dani cut her off by saying, "I know what you mean." She chuckled. "So, come on then, what do you think is going to happen?"

Santana sighed, "The obvious."

"Which is?"

She rolled her eyes, "Well they'll get together, she won't take the pill and then they'll do one of those 'nine month later' things on the screen and they'll have a little baby."

Dani shook her head. "Nope." She said, "No way. He wouldn't let it get that far."

"No he will because he will realise that, Mindy is the only girl for him and he will want all of that shit with her. It's standard romcom." Santana said.

"I really don't know about all that, let's face it; this movie isn't the typical 'romcom' is it?" She asked using air quotations, "Honestly, I just don't think he will let it get that far... Poor Mindy."

"Mindy?!" Santana said, her eyes widening as she looked at the shorter girl, "Poor Mindy?"

"Yeah."

She shook her head, "Dani, how the hell can you feel sorry for her?"

"Because she just wants him to love her."

"Yeah after one night."

"Okay, I'll admit it, she's a little unorthodox with the way that she works, like, I totally wouldn't want a girlfriend like her..." Dani sighed, "But Fred is being a giant ass with her. He is faking romantic interest in her to get his own way." She shrugged, "So yeah, I guess I kind of feel sorry for her."

"I'll tell you who _I _feel sorry for." Santana said, "Nelly." Dani rolled her eyes and looked away from Santana to focus on the screen once again.

"What!" Both girls screamed simultaneously, they looked at each other and laughed quietly before Dani shook her head, turning back to face the screen.

"I cannot believe that it ended like that." Dani said, "I _need_ to know more." She sighed, "They really should make a sequel, they have to make a sequel." She turned to face Santana who was watching her with a small smile on her lips.

"Not going to lie, I'm a little disappointed." Santana said.

"Why?"

"I just feel like we have been sold short." Santana shrugged, "Ending a movie like that shouldn't be allowed." Dani nodded in agreement.

"I suppose." She said, "So do you want to watch something else or are you gonna head home?"

"I'm okay with watching something else." Santana said smiling, "As long as you don't mind me being here." Dani rolled her eyes.

"Well. I am going to trust you to finds something as good as _The Pill_, doubt you'll find anything, though."

"I am guessing that when you say 'as good as' you actually mean something terrible?"

"Not necessarily." The blonde replied, "You can put anything you want on this time." She pushed herself off of her bed and stretched out her limbs slightly.

"Wait, where are you going?" Santana asked watching the shorter girl as she walked to the door.

"I was going to get another drink, do you want one?" Santana nodded her head, "What can I get for you?"

"Erm, anything." She shrugged.

"Coffee?" Santana nodded, "how do you take it?"

"Two sugars."

"Got it."

oOoOo

Dani walked back up the stairs carrying the two cups of coffee- one with two sugars for Santana and one with cream and two sugars for herself- she walked slowly being extra careful not to spill any on the new carpet that her mom and dad had just bought. She was quite a clumsy person it wasn't unlike her to drop objects and to spill things. She pushed her bedroom door open with her hip, struggling slightly as she did so. "Are you okay there?" Santana asked, looking away from the screen.

She nodded her head and walked over to Santana with a little more ease than before, "I'm fine." She said handing Santana her coffee, she sat down on her bed, placing her cup down on the set of drawers next to her bed. Santana took a sip of her coffee, swallowed it and took in a sharp breath through her teeth. "What is it?" Dani asked her eyes widening slightly.

"I burnt my tongue," Santana admitted, slightly embarrassed. "Do you mind keeping mine next to yours please?" Dani took the cup from the other girl shaking her head, she placed it down next to her own gently. "It'll mean me asking you to hand me it. It could get quite annoying."

"Don't worry about it, I've done it for other people." Dani replied, "So, did you find us anything good to watch?"

"No, not yet." Santana said, "I've been looking for a while now, but nothing has caught my eye. I think you should pick this time." She said.

"Okay then." Dani took the laptop from Santana and set to work on finding something for them to watch. Dani stuck to the comedy section and started to go through the selection of movies once again. She sighed and shook her head, "Have you ever seen _What To Expect When You're Expecting_?" Dani asked. She grabbed her own coffee and took a sip of it.

"No." Santana said, "But I've heard it's good."

"I've never seen it, but I've heard it's sad." She paused and looked at Santana, "Do you want to chance it?" She shrugged.

"Sure, why not." Santana said.

Dani quickly read the synopsis of the movie before she pressed play, settling down in her bed once again.

They hadn't been watching the movie for long, before Santana decided to break the silence between them, "Dani?" Santana said quietly, the shorter girl turned her head away from the screen slowly.

"Yeah?" She said.

Santana took a deep breath, "Is it okay if I stay here tonight?" She asked, she didn't look at the girl beside her, her eyes never left the movie that they were watching.

Dani nodded her head slowly. "Err, yeah I guess, if you really want to." She said.

"Thanks," Santana replied, she pried her eyes away from the screen and turned to face Dani giving her a weak smile. "I know that I only live next door, but I just can't deal with my mom and Carmen today." She admitted, "it's weird, usually Carmen knows just what to say to make me feel better with stuff like this, but today she just really hasn't been getting it right." She explained, "And my mom, well she doesn't get it _at all_." She sighed. "I know that they are trying to make me feel better and I thank them for that, but they are seriously just making it worse for me."

Dani quirked her eyebrow at the taller girl, "And I'm not?"

Santana shook her head, "No you're not." She said, "In a way, you are actually making it easier to cope with." she sighed. "It still hurts, so badly...But..." She said, she watched Dani closely while she spoke to her, the girl had nothing but understanding in her eyes. She didn't know if Dani understood how she was feeling because she had been through something similar, or if she just understood because Santana kept repeating that she was in pain. All she cared about was the fact that Dani did seem to understand and she was showing her understanding by being a _friend_, which is something that not even the full length of a week ago, Santana would have found laughable.

"Santana it will hurt." Dani said, "And you're not gonna like this, but it will probably hurt for a long time. You and Brittany were together for so long." Dani said, "But trust me on this, it will get better for you and everything will just fall into place."

"How do you know?" Santana asked looked down at her hands.

Dani shrugged, "Call it woman's intuition." She said with a faint smile.

"Do you happen to have a lot of that?" Santana asked, a weak smile playing on the corners of her mouth.

"I have enough of it."

Through out the movie, both girls would hear the other one let out a quiet sniffle or a small sob and they would chuckle at each other slightly, feeling relieved that they weren't the only one crying. When the film ended Dani sat forwards and hit the space bar, stopping the movie as the credits began rolling. She sighed and said, "I don't think I'll watch that ever again." She shook her head laughing at herself. "I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong but I didn't enjoy crying as much as I did. It's not for me."

Santana nodded her head in agreement. "God, I know exactly what you mean." She said, "That movie, is soul destroying."

"I personally wouldn't go _that_ far," Dani said, "but it is very sad."

oOoOo

"Here you go." Dani said holding out some clothes for Santana to wear. "I don't know if they'll be okay for you or if they'll even fit you or not, but it's the best that I can do." Dani shrugged.

Santana looked at the clothes and smiled weakly, "No it's great, thank you."

"It's okay." She replied, "Okay, so I am going to go get changed and get ready in the bathroom, you can change in here. When I'm done, the bathroom is all yours; I'll get you a spare tooth brush out."

As soon as Dani left the room, Santana peeled her clothes off and pulled the shirt over her head, it was slightly baggy on her- as she assumed it would be on just about everyone- but it was extremely comfortable and soft. She pulled on the sleeping shorts Dani had provided for her and looked at herself in the mirror. She let out a quiet sigh and turned on her heel. She sat on Dani's bed, with her beck pressed up against one of the many pillows. While she waited for the other girl to finish, her phone buzzed quietly.

She unlocked it and saw she had another text from Brittany, they had been texting each other for the most part of that day.

**From Brittany  
Night night, don't let the bed bugs bite. Love you xxx**

Santana was just about to start her reply when Dani walked back into the bedroom, she took in the look on Santana's face. "You okay?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just got another text from Brittany, she's just saying goodnight."

"Okay..." Dani said, she sighed, "Well the bathroom is free for you to use whenever you are ready. Try not to make too much noise though; Will get's so pissed really easily." She explained.

"I'm just replying to Britt." She said pointing to her phone.

Santana typed out a quick reply to the blonde.

**To Brittany  
I won't let them, don't worry, good night xxx **

Santana still wouldn't say the three words she was so used to saying with Brittany, she couldn't even bring herself to type them out, just like she had last night she felt that saying those words would only make the situation harder than it already was. She was no longer with Brittany, all she had with her now was a long distance friendship. That was all she could hope for. Saying 'I love you' didn't feel right.

When Santana had sent the text to Brittany, she placed her phone in the drawer along with Dani's. She pushed herself off of the bed and made her way to the door. "Your tooth brush is the pink one." Dani said as she slid underneath her covers. Santana gave her a grateful smile before she made her way into the bathroom.

oOoOo

Dani and Santana were laid in her bed facing each other, Santana had curled herself up into a tight ball and had snuggled down as far into Dani's bed as she could, the covers were pulled up to her chin. All of the lights had been turned off, as had the TV and laptop- after they had spent the best part of the night watching reality TV shows of Santana's choosing- but even in the darkness of the bedroom, Santana could still _just_ make out Dani's face. Here eyes were closed and her lips were parted slightly, her breathing grew steadier as sleep pulled at her conciousness.

"Dani?" Santana whispered, she kept her voice as quiet as she could; she hadn't wanted to disrupt the girl if she had already been asleep.

"What?" she replied, her voice only just audible.

"Thank you."

"For what?" She whispered through a yawn.

Even though Santana could see that Dani's eyes were still closed and that she couldn't see her, she shrugged her shoulders. "For being a friend." She said, "I really needed one. So, thank you."

Dani smiled at the other girl, her eyes fluttered open, "Don't worry about it." She said, she found Santana's hand under the covers and laced their fingers together yet again. She gave Santana's hand a light squeeze. Her smile grew when she felt Santana return the friendly gesture. She slowly let go of Santana's hand and put her own under her pillow pulling it closer to herself. "Good night, Santana." She closed her eyes again, and yawned once more.

"Night, Dani."

* * *

**My longest chapter yet, I really hope that you like it, (I'm not too sure how I feel about it). ****Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, favourited and or followed so far. I appreciate it. Also, if you haven't seen the movie _The Pill _I highly recommend it, it is very good. The same goes for _What To Expect When You're Expecting._**


	6. Chapter 6

**6**

Santana woke up to find a smaller body curled in to hers, the other girl had burrowed her head into Santana's neck, letting out a soft sigh. Santana had her arms weaved around the other girl, she could feel that at some point in the night their legs had become entwined with each other's. Dani's arm was wrapped around Santana's waist, her fingers resting gently on the small of Santana's back. The brunette was yet to open her eyes, she had felt too comfortable where she was to think about allowing herself to wake up fully. Her first instinct had been to warp her arms even tighter around the other person, pulling them, if possible, closer to her. The movement made the other girl stir awake.

"God morning." Dani said groggily opening her eyes slowly, a lazy smile found it's way to her face as she spoke. Upon hearing Dani's voice Santana opened her eyes and looked at Dani with confusion. Dani moved away from Santana slightly, and ducked her head avoiding eye contact with the other girl. "S-sorry." Dani stuttered out, moving further away. Santana felt a small amount of panic edge it's way into her system. Obviously, Dani knew that Santana was a lesbian and it had never worried Santana before to think about how Dani might feel about this fact. But she had only just started to consider the girl a friend and she'd hate to think that she had made her feel uncomfortable.

She had never heard Dani sound so nervous, usually the girl was bursting with confidence.

"Why are you apologising?" Santana asked, she could admit it, waking up in that situation with Dani had been a shock, but the bigger shock for Santana had come from the fact that she didn't hate waking up with Dani in her arms.

"I-I honestly don't know." Dani said pushing herself into a sitting position.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"Getting up, I have responsibilities that I need to face... You don't have to get up yet, but I do." She said.

"You're seventeen, what responsibilities do you have?" Santana asked.

"A few... Especially on Sundays. My mom and dad will be home tomorrow morning at about ten-ish, so I'll have to make sure the house is immaculate for when they get back."

"Your house already is immaculate."

"No, the house is clean... But not to my parent's standards." She replied.

"Oh." Santana replied. Still unsure as to weather Dani was making excuses to be away from her. She hadn't seemed to care about Santana being gay before, but maybe things had gone way to far for the blonde girl. "Don't get up yet, just stay here a little longer." Santana said, "I want the company." More than anything she wanted to test Dani in that moment, she wanted to see how the girl would react to her request. Though it wasn't a complete lie, she did want Dani's company, it seemed to be the only thing that had helped her since Friday night and she wasn't quite ready for that to go away just yet.

"...Okay." Dani agreed only slightly reluctant. She laid herself back down on her bed and faced Santana. Who had her eyes closed again.

"I'm not ignoring you, by the way." Santana said yawning, "I'm just resting my eyes. You can still talk to me."

"Okay." Dani said smiling uneasily.

oOoOo

When Santana woke up, the space beside her in the queen sized bed was empty. She sat up slowly and let out a big yawn. She looked around Dani's room, taking in all of the little things about it that she hadn't noticed yesterday. Like the nail in the wall above the foot of her bed that had a teal coloured dream catcher hanging on it. The dream catcher had been over lapped by small programmes and passes from music festival that you wore around your neck. It was the little things like that that Santana thought made the room that much more 'Dani'

Santana ran a hand through her hair before she pushed herself out of the bed, she stretched out her limbs slowly. She noticed that Dani's side of the bed had already been made to perfection, the cover pulled around it tightly so there was nary a crease in the material.

Usually, Santana would leave her bed, she never saw the point in making it when you were just going to get back into it again that night. But after seeing how neat Dani kept things, it felt wrong for her to not make the side of the bed she had slept on to the same standard.

She walked down the stairs slowly, keeping a look out for any other member of Dani's family. She didn't want to have an awkward run in with William, or either of her parents, Santana didn't know when they would be back. She heard a pan clang to the floor in the kitchen followed by a, "Fuck." She smiled slightly and decided to follow the sounds.

She walked into the kitchen to see Dani picking up a large frying pan from the floor. "Morning." Santana said, Dani looked up and smiled at the other girl. Dani's smile made Santana feel slightly easier about what had happened that morning, she wasn't being negative towards her she wasn't showing anything other than politeness.

"Good morning to you... Again. Do you want some food?" She asked, she swung the pan around, narrowly missing hitting herself in the face.

Santana suppressed a laugh as she watched the other girl dodge the pan. "Yes please." She said nodding and making her way over to the kitchen island.

"Great, how do you feel about bacon?" Dani asked.

"I love the stuff."

"Good because it's what we're having." She said.

"What if I had said I didn't like it? Would you have still made me eat it?" She asked smiling.

Dani shook her head, "No. I'd have offered you some cereal." She replied grinning slightly. There was beat of silence while Dani placed the rashers of bacon in the pan, "How are you feeling today?" She asked, glancing up at the girl.

"Better, thank you..." She said, "How are you?" It occurred to Santana, that over the past two days, she hadn't ever really bothered to ask how Dani was, she had been too self involved and Dani had been far more focused in making sure that Santana was okay to say anything about herself.

Dani sighed, "I'm great...Thanks for asking." She said, "Looking forward to school tomorrow, obviously." She added sarcastically.

"Me too. It's only the biggest thrill of my life." Santana joked. She watched as Dani cooked the bacon, "Can I ask you something?" Santana said quietly, she looked down to the surface of the kitchen island, and ran her fingers across it slowly.

"Yeah, sure." Dani replied cheerfully.

"I didn't make you feel awkward this morning did I?"

Dani shook her head, "No, why would you have?" She asked.

"Well y'know, me being gay and all that and being that close to you this morning. I mean, when I woke up I was cuddled up against you." She sighed. "And the way you reacted was a little, I don't know..." She could feel a small amount of annoyance filling her tone of voice, though more than anything, she felt panic stricken.

"No. I think more than anything it was shock." Dani said, "I just didn't expect us to be so cosy with each other when we woke up." Dani informed her. "I also didn't know how you'd react." She shrugged. "I can be a pretty nervous person sometimes. But, it was nothing to do with your sexuality."

"So it's not the gay thing?" Santana asked, trying to clarify things between her and Dani.

Dani shook her head. "I promise you now that it had nothing to do with the fact that you're gay." She said, "If I had felt awkward because you're gay and we were all cuddled up to each other, I would be the worlds biggest hypocrite." Dani admitted with a shrug.

"Why?... Wait, are you gay?"

"Santana, I'm ecstatic." Dani replied with a small smile.

"Seriously?"

Dani nodded. "Yeah."

"Is this like a well known fact about you? Am I the last person to know this?"

Dani shook her head. "Nope." She said, "You're not the last to know, but the only people who do know are people that I am pretty close to... And now you." She added with a smirk. "I think that other than me, four people know; you being one of them."

"Oh." Santana said.

"Yeah." Dani said, she smiled weakly, "Sorry, if I made you feel bad with the way I acted." Dani said turning her mouth down slightly. "It wasn't my intention." She said.

Santana said, "Well I know that now. And I am sorry for just assuming the worst."

Dani shrugged. "It's easily done. I guess we never really know how people are going to react with this type of thing. That's why hardly anyone knows about me. I've only told people that I know for a fact won't judge me for it."

Santana smiled, making Dani feel at ease almost instantly.

oOoOo

"I really want to do something today." Santana said before she bit into a piece of bacon.

"Like what?" Dani asked, she sat down on the stool next to Santana's and handed the other girl a cup of freshly brewed coffee.

"Honestly? I don't know." Santana admitted with a shrug. "I'll leave that part up yo you..."

"Wow. Assuming that I want to spend my time with you, much?" Dani said cutting the other girl off.

"Well no I wasn't... I mean you don't have to... I just thought that..." Santana stuttered turning a shade of pink.

"Oh my god, I'm totally kidding." Dani said, her eyes were wide with panic. "I thought that you'd get that."

Santana let out a deep breath feeling relieved. She slapped Dani lightly on the arm. "No. No I did not get that." She said, a small smile finding it's way onto her face despite herself. "You know, you're on a roll today with almost giving me heart attacks."

Dani shrugged, "Oops." She said.

"Anyway, like I was saying before you decided to be a bitch," Santana said, "I don't care where we go. All I know is that, I don't want to sit here and bore you any more with talking about my feelings and my recent breakup, I also don't want to mope around about it any more." She sighed, "I think I've done enough of that over the past couple of days." She chuckled, "Plus, I really don't want to waste a day like this being cooped up in the house, I mean, look at it, it's a beautiful day." She continued, "And it's our last day of summer vacation, I feel like we should do something, y'know? Before school and all the stress that comes with it starts."

Dani nodded her head and took a sip of her coffee. "Yeah, I know what you mean." She said looking out of the window at the bright morning light. "But, I don't want you to be sat there thinking that you've bored me with all of the talking; you really haven't." She said, "I did tell you that I was willing to sit and listen to whatever you had to say and that statement still stands. I haven't suddenly revoked it." She shrugged. "But, if you do really want to go and do something, then we most definitely can."

"Thank you." Santana said, "If I suddenly feel the need to break down again, I will make sure that I do it around you." She continued with an edge of sarcasm creeping into her voice. There was a beat of silence while the two girls ate their breakfast before Santana said, "So then Mitchell, what do you have in mind for us to do, because I have absolutely nothing." Santana took a sip of her coffee and sighed in appreciation.

Dani thought for a moment before saying, "How do you feel about taking a drive to Cincinnati?"

"Being stuck in a car with you for a little over two hours? Sounds like a dream." She said sarcastically. She shook her head slightly, "No that actually sounds pretty fun. I don't think I've ever been there." She smiled, "So what are we doing once we get there?"

Dani shrugged, "I don't actually know yet, I am thinking that we just go to Cincinnati and then just do anything, like, we just pick something to do once we get to where we're actually going."

"...Okay." Santana said, she nodded her head slightly.

"You sound really unsure."

"No, it's nothing like that it's just... Whenever I have done something like that, everything has been planned down to the finest detail, like, even the times that we would be stopping if we needed to for food, everything has been scheduled, especially when Brittany and I did stuff together."

Dani shrugged, "I guess I just prefer to be spontaneous." She said, "Knowing that I am driving us both down to Cincinnati is as much planning as we need."

Santana sighed, "Yeah I guess but..." She opened her mouth to argue her point but Dani cut her off.

"Santana, you said that I could decide what we do and I decide that we take a day trip to Cincinnati and just pick something to do once we actually get there. It'll be fun, I promise you."

Santana screwed her face up slightly, "Urgh fine." She said, "But I am not giving you any money towards gas."

"And I'm not asking you to." Dani said, "Finish your breakfast and your coffee and then go home to get ready, I am only giving you an hour. Okay?" She said smiling.

"Sure." Santana said, she quickly finished her food and her drink. She ran back up the stairs into Dani's bedroom pulling on the clothes she had been wearing the day before.

"See you soon." Dani called as Santana walked back into the kitchen. She waved once at the shorter girl and left the house.

oOoOo

"Well, sandbags, you are finally starting to look more like yourself again." Dani smiled, Santana walked out of her house wearing a pair of tight black jeans, high heeled boots, and a low cut red t-shirt.

"Oh so 'sandbags' is back now?"

Dani smiled at Santana and nodded her head, "Yes, I went too long without calling you it."

Santana sighed and nodded her head slowly, "Ahh that's right, you went a full day." She sarcastically, a small smile played on the corners of her mouth.

"I did and it was hell." Dani joked.

Santana smiled and said, "So then, Daniellaaar..."

"Daniellaaar?" She asked, mimicking the high pitched voice Santana had used just moments before, "Seriously?"

"Yeah as in Daniella."

"You do know my name's not Daniella though, right? It's just Danielle."

Santana nodded, "I'm aware." She said, "I just thought it would annoy you more."

"Okay then." Dani said quirking her eyebrow at the girl as the brunette climbed into the car. "Oh by the way, I've actually picked something for us to do in Cincinnati, I hope that's okay with you."

"It is." Santana said nodding her head slightly, "So can you tell me?"

"I could."

"Are you going to?"

"Nope." Dani said shaking her head.

"Urgh, just tell me."

"No, it's a spur of the moment thing." Dani said, "The only reason that I know where we are going is because I have to get us there." She said typing their destination into the GPS system. She held it at an angle that Santana couldn't see what she was doing.

"Fine." Santana sighed.

Dani smiled at the other girl, knowing she had won. "Can you get me my iPod and plug it into that thing?" She asked, pointing to a wire leading from the CD player in her car's dashboard.

"Er, yeah sure. Where is it?"

"Glove box."

Santana opened the glove compartment and frowned slightly, she thought about how bad her car would look compared to Dani's; inside Dani's glove compartment was a small, neat stack of CD's, with her iPod laid on top of them. Inside the glove compartment of her own car, all you would find were empty packets from bags of potato chips and chocolate bar wrappers.

Santana plugged it in and handed the iPod to Dani once the blonde had placed the GPS in a position that only she could see what was on the screen. The blonde scrolled through all of her playlists and artists lists multiple times before she settled on something. She hit play and put the playlist on shuffle. She turned the volume up and pulled out of her driveway.

Santana furrowed her brow and frowned slightly as an unfamiliar song started to play. "Who's this?" She asked nodding in the direction of the iPod.

"Transvision Vamp." Dani replied.

"Who?" Santana asked.

"They're a British band from the eighties." Dani informed her. Santana leaned her head back against the car seat and listen to the lyrics of the song, as a female voice started to sing.

_Well you can give me all your love__  
__And anything else you got too__  
__But don't pay it any mind__  
__If it seems like I'm acting cool_

Dani began to sing along quietly, she mumbled the words and drummed her fingers gently against the steering wheel while she watched the road ahead of her. Santana found herself wanting to focus more on Dani's voice instead of the woman singing on the actual song.

"_W__ell you can dress me in your mirror__  
__Give me kisses forever and a day yeah__  
__But there's just one thing__  
__You don't have to say__"_

Santana looked out of the window next to her and sighed slightly, "Hey, are you okay?" Dani asked.

Santana nodded her head, "Yeah. I'm just listening." She said.

"Oh. Do you not like it? I can turn it over."

Santana shook her head "No, it's fine." She said.

"Well let me know if a song comes on that you don't like."

"Don't worry, I have every intention of doing that." Santana said smiling. Dani glanced at the other girl returning the smile before an easy silence fell between them as they listened to the music on Dani's iPod.

oOoOo

Two hours. That's how long it had taken them to get where they were going. It was also two hours of Santana relentlessly saying 'are we there yet?' just to annoy the shorter girl. It was two hours of Dani getting mildly annoyed with the GPS, mocking the sound of it's voice as she got more and more stressed with it as it would take her the wrong way. Two hours of Santana complaining about most of the music on Dani's iPod. But they had finally reached their destination.

To say she was a little disappointed with Dani's choice of location would have been an understatement. She had thought that with Dani being so secretive that it was going to be something exciting, Santana couldn't have been more wrong.

"Dani, why the hell are we stood outside of the American Sign Museum?" Santana asked, she had a disgusted look plastered on her face as she looked up at the building. "Seriously, if this is your idea of 'fun', then I am getting on the next piece of transport that will take me straight back to Lima."

Dani sighed and rolled her eyes, "No, this isn't my exact idea of fun, but it has gotten up away from Lima for a little while and it got you out of your house, just like you said you wanted."

"Yes, but I also told you that I didn't want to waste my last day of freedom before the stress of senior year kicks in. This, is a very big waste of a day."

"Oh my god. Would you please, just stop being so grumpy?" She asked smiling slightly at the taller girl, "Come on." Santana shook her head, staying rooted to the spot. Dani sighed and grabbed the other girl's hand, beginning to drag her towards the museum. Santana had tried to fight against the shorter girl, but all of her attempts were to no avail.

"You are freakishly strong for a midget, do you know that?"

"Hey." Dani glared at Santana jokingly, "I might be shorter than you, but you are aware that there isn't _that_ much of a difference in our heights, right?"

Santana shrugged, "There's still a difference."

"Santana, just please stop relenting and enter the god damn museum, so I can stop dragging you around." Dani said, "You're making us both look like asses." Eventually, she gave in and fell into step with Dani, allowing the other girl to pull her gently in the direction of the building. Dani dropped her hand as they walked through the doors.

Dani and Santana were stood in the American Sign Museum, there was barely any noise around them, the building was practically empty that day. They had tried their best to remain quiet, but the boredom had gotten the better of the brunette. At some point, the had occurred to both of the girls that they were without a doubt the youngest people in there that day.

"Dani, can we please just go now?" She said, "I honestly feel like we have seen everything this place has to offer."

"No." Dani said, shaking her head.

"I hate this." Santana said, "I hate you."

Dani sighed and rolled her eyes at the taller girl, she started to walk away from Santana who groaned and followed her. Dani stopped in her tracks when she heard an elderly couple talking about one of the signs. The couple sounded thoroughly enthralled with what they were seeing. Dani couldn't help herself.

"Oh, Santana, would just look at the lovely sign." Dani said in a sarcastic manner. She put on a mocking voice. Santana's eyes widened as she looked at the shorter girl standing next to her (who was being anything but quiet).

"Dani, shut up!" Santana whisper shouted.

"No." She replied, keeping the same mocking voice she had used before she said, "I especially love this one." She pointed to the large neon sign that the elderly coupe had been talking about just moments before. he elderly couple looked over their shoulders, scowling at the blonde girl.

"Dani, stop it." Santana hissed, trying not to laugh, as people around them had started to watch the blonde girl

"It's _soooo _pretty!"

Santana smirked and let out a small breathy laugh as Dani turned to face her, with a beaming smile in place, making the small dimples in her cheeks appear. Santana found it hard not to laugh at Dani, the animation she put into what she was doing had brightened up her day slightly. Up on hearing the shorter girl's words a woman approached them, she was dressed smartly, wearing a mint green blouse with a black skirt and black blazer.

She smiled at the girls, Dani and Santana's smiles disappeared when the woman approached them. She looked them both up and down, "Hi." she said in an overly happy tone.

"Hey." Dani replied, mentally cursing herself for her prior actions. All she had wanted to do was make Santana see the fun side of it and to make the other girl laugh. She hand't thought that her sarcasm and jokes would attract the attention of one of the employees, she hadn't wanted them to attract the attention of anyone else either.

The woman leaped into a conversation with Dani, about all of the signs in the museum feeding the girl random facts that she didn't actually care about. Dani tried to maintain an interested look on her face, though, as the conversation progressed the task became harder. Santana stood beside her with her hand covering her mouth, hiding her laughter, she moved her hand away from her face and mouthed 'karma', at the shorter girl. Who stood nodding and smiling, being as polite as she could be.

"Fascinating." Dani replied sarcastically once the woman had finished with her rambling.

"I thought so too." The woman said, smiling brightly at the short girl. She turned her head to look at the sing, still smiling widely. Santana furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Dani, who had her signature quirked eyebrow in place. 'Wow' Dani mouthed, Santana shook her head head slightly at the fact that the women hadn't caught on to Dani's obvious sarcasm. There was a beat of silence before she turned to the taller girl and said, "Are you enjoying it?"

Santana nodded her head slowly, somehow she didn't have it in her to be harsh to the woman when she saw the hopeful look on her face. "Yeah." She said, "I am so excited about all of this," she said sarcastically, "I am loving it all."

Dani nodded, "She really is. She's so excited, she just can't hide it." The shorter girl replied, "She's about to lose control and I think she likes it."

The woman seemed to stiffen at Dani's words, glaring at the blonde before she sighed and turned on her heel, walking away from them to the elderly couple Dani had been mimicking before hand. Dani and Santana both broke down laughing.

"See that is what being an asshole get's you." Santana said pointing at the woman. "I tried to warn you about it."

Dani shrugged, "So, that was fun." She said, "And really, her facts were just fascinating." She joked.

"Are you quite done with all of this? Or do you have something else up your sleeve that could potentially offend someone?" Santana asked smiling slightly.

Dani shook her head, "No, I'm done now." She said.

"So we can leave?"

"Yes, we can leave." Dani nodded.

"Thank you." Santana said, before leading the shorter girl out of the museum.

oOoOo

Santana sighed as she buckled herself into Dani's car, "Seriously, that was beyond boring."

"Oh come on, you had fun." Dani said. She punched in her address on the GPS and pulled out of her parking space.

"No, I didn't."

"Yes you did, Santana, just admit that you had fun.." She said, "Come on, best part of the day?"

"When we left." Santana said bluntly.

Dani rolled her eyes, "I am being serious... My favourite part of the day was the woman's story about the sign," she shrugged slightly, a small smile appearing on her lips. "What was yours?"

"When you pissed that woman off." She admitted. "In all honesty, that was not only the highlight of my day, but was the highlight of my week."

"Awww, I'm the highlight of your week." Dani said mocking the taller girl.

"No, you being a douche was the highlight of my week. Deciding to talk to you on Friday was my low point." She joked.

"Erm, okay ow!" Dani said sardonically. "Usually for something like that I would just kick the person straight out of my car, but since you are in a very fragile state right now, I am going to be nice to you... I'll slow down a little for you and then kick you to the curb."

Silence feel between the two girls, "Dan, do you mind if I put some music on?"

Dani shook her head, "No go for it." She said.

Santana sighed and looked through Dani's iPod. "What type of music do you have on your play list called 'Car music'?" Santana asked.

Dani shrugged, "A little bit of everything, but I have some music that I just won't listen to when I am driving so I tend to keep it separate and I have an additional play list for when I take long drives." She explained. "That's what we were listening to earlier." Dani shrugged.

"Car Music it is then." Santana said before she clicked on the play list and put it on shuffle.

As the first song started playing Santana's eyes widened, "What is it?" Dani asked, she glanced at Santana to see the girl watching her. "What?"

"Nothing, I just didn't have you pegged as _Burlesque_ type of girl."

"Why?"

"Because, look at you." Santana said, waving a hand around in front of the other girl.

"What's wrong with how I look?"

"No!" Santana said, "I didn't mean like that, I just meant with the way you dress I wouldn't have you down as a musicals type of person. It just shocked me a little, I suppose."

"Well... I guess you should never judge a book by it's cover."

"Clearly."

oOoOo

Dani and Santana were stood by the shorter girls car, "Well today was..." Santana said, trailing off trying to find the word to best describe how she felt the day had been.

"Fun?" Dani said smirking slightly.

Santana nodded her head and sighed, "Yeah." She chuckled, "No matter how much I want to deny it, I did have fun today. But the museum wasn't fun. I want to clarify that."

"You enjoyed it just admit it." Dani said.

"No I did. I had fun with you today, so thanks."

"Any time." The blonde replied, "My day wasn't so terrible either, y'know?" She said.

"Well, good." Santana said smiling at the other girl, Dani returned the smile, both of them stood awkwardly for a moment before Santana spoke up, "Well, uh, bye then." She said, she stepped forwards and pulled Dani into a hug, the other girl wrapped her arms around Santana's waist. Dani was the first one to pull away from the hug first.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Dani said, Santana gave her a confused look. "At school?" Dani said.

"Oh right yeah, that." Santana said, she nodded her head slowly, "I'll see you tomorrow, Daniellaaar." She chimed as she turned on her heel.

"Bye, sandbags." Dani called after her.

* * *

**The song used in this chapter is **_**Baby I Don't Care**_** by Transvision Vamp**

**So, the chapters will probably be staying at similar lengths from here on out, so I hope the longer chapters aren't going to be a problem. Thank you to those who have read this story so far, and thank you to those of you who have reviewed, favourited and or added this story to your alerts. **

**P.S: Couldn't help but make and Imagine Me and You reference in this chapter. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Seven**

Monday morning had been an extremely boring one, but then again, Santana was back at school, so she can't say that she had been expecting anything different. She had seen Dani that morning briefly, they had seen each other in hallway after Dani had arrived to school a little later than Santana. Dani had smiled brightly when she had seen the brunette and had made her way towards her, she had just been about to open her mouth to say something to her when she was engulfed by her small group of friends who had quickly ushered her away with them to get their new class schedules.

Santana's lessons that morning had been nothing but boring; Math, English and History- which was now taught by Mr Schuester, the ex-Spanish teacher; he had been replaced by Mr. Martinez, towards the middle of last year. Her first three lessons of the school year had been three lessons that Santana couldn't have cared any less about even if she had tried.

She had been alone in all of her lessons and had been forced to sit with people that she didn't actually like all that much. All she wanted was to see a friendly and familiar face. Which is why when the bell for lunch rang, she jumped up from her seat and dashed out of her history class room as fast as she could, only just hearing Mr. Schue tell them to start reading their books for the first assignment.

She was the first one from glee club to walk into the cafeteria, she looked around the almost empty room before she rushed over to the long table in the middle of the room, where she and the rest of the glee kids usually sat. That table was the only one that had room for them all to sit with each other comfortably.

She absentmindedly started to push her food around her plate with her fork, feeling the boredom of being alone kicking in already. She sighed and glanced towards the back of the room. It was then that she spotted Dani sitting in the far corner with her usual group of friends around her, all of them talking animatedly.

Dani caught sight of Santana and gave her a quick friendly smile and waved at her by jiggling her fingers slightly before she turned back to the red haired boy who sat beside her, he had been looking at Dani with gooey eyes and an adoring smile on his face.

This boy, 'Stoner Brett', was a new addition to the group sitting with the short girl. He wasn't usually seen with her, he wasn't usually seen with anyone besides the stoner clique, though it looked like Dani and the other's didn't mind having him there.

Santana thought back over the last few days that she had had and how Dani had been the only person who had known what to say and do to make her feel better, without actually really doing anything. She wondered, if Dani was just that nice to everyone, or if she genuinely had felt sorry for the girl and had wanted to help her.

She wanted to talk to Dani, she really wanted to talk to her. She contemplated going over there to say a quick hello, before going back to her usual table, but she wasn't sure if the blonde would appreciate it or not. As she watched Dani, she noticed that the shorter girl kept glancing towards her and smiling ever so slightly.

She was just about to stand up and walk towards her when the sound of Rachel's voice snapped her away from her thoughts.

"Hi, Santana... How are you feeling?" She asked, she had used a soft tone of voice, one that Santana could only describe as patronising. She placed her tray down gently, before sitting down next to Santana slowly, approaching her like she was an injured animal.

"I'm fine." She shrugged, not really knowing what more she could say, she was fine, as fine as she could be anyway.

"I'm sorry about what happened between you and Brittany." She said, "But, really, you seem to be taking it really well, given how close the pair of you were. You were practically inseparable."

"Yeah, I remember. I was there." She said dryly. She didn't miss the hurt look on Rachel's face at that fact that her nice gesture had been shot down. Santana let out a soft sigh and said, "Sorry about that." She shrugged, "I really do appreciate you trying to comfort me and all, I know that you mean it... But, I'm past that stage now, well sort of anyway." She admitted.

She wouldn't lie, of course it still hurt her, but one thing was for sure, she wasn't hurting half as much as she had been on Friday night. She missed Brittany of course, but the fact of the matter was that she _knew _she had to move on, whether she wanted to or not, she couldn't keep moping about things, if she did that she'd never get out of this slump. Besides, if she had a relapse and needed someone to talk to, she would have just marched straight up to Dani and dragged her away from her friends, claiming her for herself.

She most definitely wouldn't talk to Rachel Berry about any of this.

"You're passed it?" Rachel asked quirking her eyebrow at the taller girl in a way that reminded her so much of Dani. Santana nodded her head slowly but surely.

"I guess." She said, "I had a little help from a friend over the weekend." Santana said smiling slightly, thinking back to Saturday and Sunday, most of which she had spent with Dani.

"Well that's..." Rachel trailed off, trying to think of the best word that she could use in this current situation, she definitely hadn't expected Santana to be sat talking to her like this, "Good?" Rachel said, settling for a word.

The table soon filled up with the kids from glee club, all of them asking Santana how she was, all of them approaching her like she was wounded. When Quinn, Puck and Mercedes sat down opposite her, Santana's view of Dani was obstructed.

Which annoyed the brunette far more than she would ever admit.

oOoOo

When the bell rang Santana headed straight for the Spanish classroom, hoping that she would have someone she could actually talk to in this lesson. She made her way to the back of the classroom, sitting in the far corner, just in front of the large window. She dropped into the seat and waited for the classroom to fill up.

Santana enjoyed Spanish, she found it to be one of the easiest subjects by far, of course, it did help that she was fluent in the language. But above all she actually liked going to her Spanish lessons. Especially since Mr Schuester had been replaced as the Spanish teacher, which Santana thought was a blessing. The man hadn't known anything about the language, nor had he cared about the language.

The new Spanish teacher was now a man called, David Martinez. Since he had taken over the job, the subject had actually started being taught properly.

The room was slowly filling up and Santana was yet to see a face of a person that she could actually stand. The door opened slowly, creaking as it did, Santana looked up to the door to see who had caused the annoying sound. She smiled when she saw Dani walk into the room, the blonde looked around the class before her eyes fell onto Santana. The brunette beckoned her over to the back of the room with one finger.

"What?" Dani said quietly once she was standing next to Santana, who was looking up at the shorter girl from her seat, with hopeful eyes.

"Sit with me." She said, phrasing it more as a demand than an actual question.

Dani rolled her eyes good naturedly and smiled, "God you're demanding." She said with a slight chuckle.

"Not demanding, lonely." Santana said her eyes never leaving Dani's face as she sat down beside her.

Dani sat down in the seat beside Santana earning themselves a lot of questioning looks from other people in their class. It was unusual for Santana and Dani to be seen with each other, let alone choosing to sit with each other.

The only other times they had sat next to each other were when seating plans had been enforced, like in sophomore year when they were lab partners because their teacher had decided to sit people in an alphabetical order, and Mitchell and Lopez had been deemed close enough to earn each other as their lab partner for the whole year.

"We haven't really had much chance to talk today," Dani said quietly, keeping her voice as low as possible, "so I'll ask now. How are you feeling?"

"Better." Santana said, "It keeps getting easier and easier."

"That's what we like to hear." Dani said smiling.

"What about you? How are you feeling?"

"I'm great, but, why wouldn't I be?" She asked, "I got to see my friends again, I haven't seen them in a while. I've been pretty busy." She said.

"Oh. Sorry." Santana said, "I didn't realise that you'd had plans."

"No. I don't mean you." Dani said, "Although, you did keep me busy for two days... I meant that I had been busy for a few weeks, like when you went away. I was busy then. And then I spent the weekend with you." She smiled, "Which was actually a really nice break from what I'd had going on."

"Good. I'd hate to think I ruined your weekend."

"You definitely didn't." Dani said reassuring the girl, "Had it not been for you, I never would have seen that pretty sign."

Santana rolled her eyes, "I still can't believe you dragged me to that thing."

"You loved it. And that woman's fascinating story."

"I did." Santana replied sarcastically.

"Do I know how to have fun or what?" Dani joked.

"You definitely know how to do something." She said, "I can only imagine what a date with you would be like."

Dani smirked, "You imagine that often?" She joked. Santana opened her mouth to make a remark, but was cut off when Mr Martinez walked into the room, clapping his hands together and smiling brightly as he made his introduction.

oOoOo

When the final bell of the day rang Santana couldn't have been more thankful. It had definitely been on of the most boring days she had ever had to endure at that school. Her highlight of the day had been the fact that she and Dani had been put in the same Spanish class for the year. Though, she wasn't quite sure if she'd actually ever admit that to anyone, especially Dani, she knew that she'd never hear the end of it if the blonde found out.

As soon as Santana was inside her car, she turned on her music, closing her eyes she listened to the first few bars of the song before she buckled up and pulled out of the school's parking lot.

She was only five minutes into her journey home when she got stopped at some street lights, she could barely see anything through her wind shield; the heavy rain made the lights look more like blurs than anything else. As she waited for the lights to change to green, a familiar black car pulled up behind her, much closer than she would have liked and much closer than it really should have.

The roads were full of people like this. Just yesterday she and Dani had experienced many people tailgating them and while Santana had become annoyed and had had a little bit of road rage. The blonde had lowed down her driving by _just _a _little_ bit to annoy the people behind her.

Santana sighed and focused her attention back to the road a head of her. She watched as the windscreen wipers smudged the rain across the glass, only just making it a little easier to see where she was going. As she waited, she found herself getting increasingly more bored. She looked back into her rear view mirror and caught sight of the girl driving the black car. The girl was dancing in her seat, she threw herself around slightly before she stopped and looked ahead of her. It was only when her face came into view that Santana realised it was Dani.

Dani grinned brightly at Santana, before she flipped her the bird, her huge smile never faltering. She lowered her hand and started to drum on her steering wheel, Santana could only just make out that her lips were moving as she sang along to the song that she was listening to.

Santana shook her head slightly, while she watched Dani dancing, she couldn't stop the smile from spreading across her face. The girl had acted in a similar way yesterday, though, then her movements had been a lot calmer than they were now.

As Santana kept checking her rear view mirror, she would catch Dani dancing slightly. She was fully surprised that the girl had never once crashed her car, seeing how she acted when she was on the road.

oOoOo

"Nice moves," Santana said laughing slightly as the shorter girl climbed out of her car.

"Why thank you." Dani said as she walked towards Santana. The blonde held her hood at either side to keep it up against the light Autumn breeze. "I guess I'll have to teach you how to dance like that sometime." She said.

"Hmm, definitely, I'm pretty jealous of those moves." She joked.

Dani nodded her head slowly, "Yeah a lot of people say that." She chuckled.

"Can I ask what you were dancing to? Because you looked like you were really into it." Santana said.

"Oh. I was dancing to Christina Aguilera." Dani shrugged, "Kind of love her music."

"Her music? Or her?" Santana asked giving Dani a knowing look.

Dani shook her head, "No, her music and her voice." She said. "She doesn't really do it for me in that respect."

There was a beat of silence before Santana said, "I'm just wondering, are you busy?" Dani took a second to think before she shook her head, "Well, do you wanna come over to my house for a little while? I mean, I might as well be alone in there right now. My mami and papi are both at work and no doubt Carmen will just be freaking out about having to go back to Yale tomorrow."

Dani nodded her head once more and smiled, "Yeah, sure... Let me just drop my bag off in the house and I'll be right over."

"Got it." Santana said, they quickly went their own ways, Santana rushing into her house while Dani slowly walked across the muddy gardens. Within two minutes Dani was knocking on the door to Santana's house.

"Hi, again." Dani said cheerfully.

"Come on in." Santana said smiling.

"Thanks." Dani said stepping into Santana's house.

"Make yourself at home." Santana said smiling brightly as she and Dani walked into the living room, "Mi casa es tu casa."

"Hot." Dani said nodding her head slowly as she lowered herself onto the couch.

"Are you being serious?"

Dani nodded her head, "I am being _very_ serious." She admitted, "I think the Spanish language is kind of hot. Along with the accent." She said, "Seriously, I mean, I am totally gay but I have to stop myself from jumping on Mr. Martinez when he opens his mouth." She said with a slight chuckle.

"Good to know." Santana said, "I best keep my eye on you then." She joked. Dani screwed her face up slightly, realising the bullets she had given Santana to fire.

"Yeah, that'd be wise." She said playing along.

Carmen walked into the living room looking down at the screen on her phone, "Hey, San have you..." She trailed off when she looked up from her phone, her eyes landing on Dani, she pointed at the blonde haired girl and furrowed her eyebrows.

"Oh right, Carm, you remember Danielle Mitchell, right?"

Carmen nodded her head slowly, "Yeah I do." She said, "Hey, Danielle, how have you been?" She asked, feeling a little awkward, in all of her nineteen years, she hadn't ever really spoken to any of the Mitchell children other than Adriana, and that was only because they were the same age and had been in the same class at school.

"Erm, it's just Dani... I've been great thanks... What about you?" Dani asked. She smiled slightly as she looked between the two girls, she had never realised how alike they actually were until she saw them both standing together, though, she'd admit it, she saw Santana as the prettier of the two.

"Good, I'm good." She said.

"Great..." Dani said, there was a beat of awkward silence before Dani broke it, "So how's Yale, then?" She asked.

"It's really great actually. I enjoyed myself a lot last year, I can't wait to get back there. It's nerve racking in a way, but so exciting." She said, Dani nodded her head trying to follow Carmen's rambling.

Dani smiled, "Good. I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying it." She said, she turned her mouth down slightly before saying, "Y'know, Adriana was so pissed when she didn't get into Yale." She said.

"Wait, she applied?"

Dani nodded her head slowly, "Yeah to study Law. She didn't really want to go down that road, but our dad wanted her to, so she did, it was the only way she could get funding from him." Dani admitted, "But she's at UPENN now instead."

"Huh, who'd have thought it?" She said sitting down on the seat beside Dani. "Have you seen her lately?"

Dani nodded her head slowly, "Yeah, she came home during the summer and we went on a road trip to Wisconsin. But then she went back to Pennsylvania."

"So..." Santana said snapping the girl's attentions away from each other, "Dani do you wanna watch a movie?"

Dani nodded her head slowly, "Yes." She said jumping up from where she was sitting.

"Follow me then." Santana said, walking past Carmen.

"Carmen it was great talking to you." Dani said, trying her best to be polite about the whole situation as she followed Santana out of the room.

"Have you fun you two!" Carmen called after the two girls, Santana turned around to see Carmen wiggling her eyebrows at her and giving her a knowing smile.

Santana shook her head as they were walking up the stairs,"Did Adriana really apply for Yale?"

Dani nodded her head. "Yeah, she applied to a lot of the ivy league colleges."

"Wow, our elder sibling's setting the bar a little high for us aren't they?"

Dani smiled, "I guess, but, I'm not like Ana," she said, "I'll just apply where ever the hell I want. If my dad doesn't like it, then he doesn't like it."

"What if he doesn't give you the funding though?"

"Well, y'know what, that's really up to him." Dani said, "I've got a feeling there are a lot of things about me he won't like when he finds out about them anyway." She said. Santana knew that Dani was referring to her sexuality, but thought it was best to not ask any questions on the matter, " So the way I see it is that, I might as well make myself happy rather than doing things to appease him or anyone else."

Santana opened her mouth to say something but thought better on the matter, instead she pushed her bedroom door open and lead the way inside.

Dani's eyes widened slightly when she walked into Santana's bedroom, there were some stuff in their that she had more or less been expecting to see, like the dark wallpaper and the dark sheets on her bed, that seemed to scream 'Santana', the large makeup case on her vanity along with the several bottles of nail polish ranging in a lot of different colors from dark purples to bright reds. The pictures that she had stuck to one of the doors of her closet of her and other members of the glee club, most of the pictures consisted of her, Brittany and or Quinn. None of these things had surprised her.

What Dani hand't been expecting to see, was the small amount of mess that Santana seemed to have made. Clothes spewed out from several of her drawers and her closet. There were empty water bottles and RedBull cans scattered around the floor and on some of the surfaces in her room. Her bed covers had been thrown towards the bottom of the bed, all tangled together in a big mound.

"I'm sorry about the mess." Santana said, her eyes widened slightly as she looked at the smaller girl. Honestly, she had forgotten how bad it actually was. Though she had fully intended to clean it up on Saturday, other things had gotten in the way of that. Other things that had all involved Dani.

Dani shook her head and smiled slightly. "No, don't worry about it." She said with a small shrug, "It's your room, keep it how you want to. You don't have to apologise." She said.

She walked into Santana's room and headed straight for her pictures. She looked at them all, taking in the faces of the people Santana spent most of her time with. She couldn't really name many of them, she only knew a few of the faces she saw. She took one of the pictures off of the door and studied it for a while.

Santana came to stand behind her, she looked at the picture Dani was holding and smiled slightly. "That was taken in the spring of Freshmen year." She said quietly, Dani could feel her breath on her neck, the feeling sent small shivers down her spine. "I guess that was when the three of us got really close, that's pretty much when we became The Unholy Trinity."

Dani scoffed slightly at the name that the three of them regularly used for themselves, Santana narrowed her eyes at the other girl slightly, Dani turned around to face Santana and gave her an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry." She said, "It's just, 'The Unholy Trinity'?" She asked using air quotations.

"Well yeah." Santana said, "We were always a threesome, and c'mon, I'm sure you've heard the rumors about us." She said, "We're not exactly angels."

Dani rolled her eyes, she had heard the rumors, most people at that school had heard the rumors about Santana, Quinn and Brittany. It was said that they had all been around. Dani looked back down at the picture of them all wearing their Cheerios uniforms. "So, how come you quit the Cheerios, then?" She asked.

"Coach Sue." Santana admitted, "She's not the nicest woman in the world. In fact she's absolutely horrible and verbally abusive. She once tried to fire Brittany out of a canon, y'know?"

"Seriously?" Dani asked, "Like a canon, like a real life canon?" Her eyes were wide with wonder, Santana nodded her head slowly. "Why is she still allowed in the school? Why are people allowing her to teach?"

"I'm going with bribery and manipulation." Dani let out a breath before the she stuck the picture back on the door along with the others. "So then tiny, what do you wanna watch?"

Dani rolled her eyes at the brunette, "I'm not _that_ small." Dani said.

"You kind of are." Santana chuckled before walking to where she kept her laptop.

oOoOo

"Wait, you haven't seen _Dexter_?" Dani asked quirking her eyebrow at the other girl.

Santana thought for a moment before saying, "Wait isn't that that cartoon about that French kid who had a lab?"

Dani's eyes widened slightly, "No. That's _Dexter's Laboratory_," She said shaking her head slightly, "I am talking about _Dexter._"

"Well then, no, I haven't seen that." Santana said as she and Dani walked down the stairs heading towards the front door.

"It's really good, it's bout this serial killer, who only kills serial killers." She explained, "But no one know this about him other than his dead dad." She said excitedly.

"That sounds... Interesting?" Santana said furrowing her eyebrows at the shorter girl.

"No, really it is." Dani said, "You'll have to watch it and then tell me what you think." Dani said, she smiled at the other girl, "Give me your phone, please." She said holding her hand out, Santana rolled her eyes but handed her phone over none the less. Dani quickly typed in her number before handing the phone back to the taller girl. "Text me with what you think about it."

"Okay, fine." She said, when they reached the door Santana instinctively reached forwards and pulled Dani towards her for a hug.

The hug already felt warm and familiar to her now, it was just odd to her how quickly she had become accustomed to Dani's arms, of course, she supposed it helped waking up cuddled up to the shorter girl yesterday morning. But still, she found it odd just how much she had enjoyed being in that situation and she found it odd just how much she enjoyed hugging Dani. Santana didn't like being that close to anyone other than Brittany.

She shook the thought from her head quickly, figuring that it was merely comfort that she needed and since Dani had been giving her it she found herself wanting to spend more time with her. She thought, that once she was well and truly over Brittany- if that ever happened- that things would be different.

"Okay, well I'll see you tomorrow, Sandbags," she said smiling, she waved once and then said, "Bye to you as well, Carmen. Have fun when you get back to Connecticut!"

"Bye Dani!" Carmen called from the living room, "And I fully plan on having fun. Don't you worry about that!" Dani chuckled at the other girl and shook her head before saying bye once more and heading out of the Lopez household.

Santana sighed as she watched Dani rush across the garden to get in from the rain. She closed the door with a light click and turned on her heel and headed straight up to her bedroom. It might have only been the first day back at school. But already some of her teachers had set assignments for her.

oOoOo

Santana was sat listening to her music, trying to make sense of her Math homework, she hated doing Pythagoras's Theorem, she had never been able to understand it. It never got any easier for her, if anything it just stressed her out all the more.

"Okay, I've got to ask this." Carmen said as she walked into Santana's bedroom without knocking on the door. Santana turned to face her sister, giving her a questioning look, "Since when are you and Danielle Mitchell friends?" She asked, quirking her eyebrow at her younger sister. "The pair of you have practically hated each other for seventeen years."

"We don't hate each other, we've never hated each other." Santana clarified, "We didn't particualrly like each other either but..." Santana said trailing off. Carmen rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh, still waiting for the answer to her question. "Look we got talking on Friday night, just after I'd been to Brittany's." She said, "Then I stayed at her place on Saturday and we went to Cincinnati yesterday, so I guess since then."

"Seriously, that's the 'friend' you went to see on Saturday?" She asked. Santana nodded her head, "So what did you guys do yesterday in Cincinnati then?"

"We went to the American Sign Museum."

"Wow. I bet that was fun." She replied sarcastically.

"It wasn't too bad actually." She said with a shrug, "Dani managed to piss of the museum curator. That was kind of fun." Santana said.

"Well I'll give her this," Carmen said, "she is _way_ nicer than Adriana." she chuckled slightly. When Carmen had been at high school, she had hated Adriana Mitchell and Adriana had hated her; they had always been the forerunners for homecoming and prom queen, (Adriana had won Prom Queen junior year, but Carmen had snagged it in senior year- though Carmen had always won homecoming queen).

Santana shrugged, "Well I wouldn't know about that." She said, "I never spoke to Adriana."

"Trust me, you didn't miss anything." Carmen said dryly. "I hated that girl. But I love knowing she wanted into Yale and didn't get it." She admitted smiling brightly.

"So that's why you were asking Dani questions about her?" Santana said, "Because you hate her?" Carmen nodded her head.

She dropped herself onto Santana's bed and launched into some of her stories from high school that involved the eldest of the Mitchell children. Her stories had always amused Santana, it was surprising to heart about all of the things she had actually done in the past.

oOoOo

Santana laid on her bed with her History text book open, she tapped her highlighter pen on the side of it as she read the passage in the book. Mr Schuester had wanted them all to do some 'light reading' for their first assignment of the year, much to everyone's dismay. Santana had always found it hard to focus on History, given that she didn't care about the subject in any way, shape or form.

She sighed as she placed her ear buds in, preparing herself to do her first bit of reading on the Civil Right's movement and the different peaceful and non-peaceful protesters.

She dropped her head into her book after reading and re-reading the first paragraph roughly five times. She turned her music off and pulled her headphones out. She sighed and grabbed her laptop.

It was obvious she wasn't going to be able to focus on anything. She was far too tired to be trying to read about the Montgomery Bus Boycott. She quickly logged into Netflix and searched for _Dexter_, Dani had recommended that she watch it. She felt that the least she could do was watch the first episode. If she didn't like it, she could always torment the other girl about how bad the show was.

She had watched roughly five episodes of the first season and found herself truly hooked on it. She picked up her phone and found Dani's contact in her phone book, she quickly changed the contact name Dani was saved under before typing out her message.

**To Daniellaaar**

**Daniellaaar! What have you done to me? I am hooked, absolutely hooked.**

She had sent the message quickly, and threw her phone back down beside her on the bed before starting the next episode and settling further down into her bed. About thirty seconds later, she received a text message.

**From Daniellaaar**

**I knew you'd like it! :D.**

Santana chuckled slightly before she tapped out her reply.

**To Daniellaaar**

**I do. I love it! **

She watched the next ten minutes of Dexter in peace before her phone buzzed quietly, she wouldn't have even realised that she had a message had she not seen her screen light up from the corner of her eye.

**From Daniellaaar**

**Well I was going to leave it and start some studying but I've just started season 5 now. :D**

**To Daniellaaar**

**You're already on season 5? How long have you been watching it?**

Dani's reply came instantly, Santana rolled her eyes slightly, she had only just hit play on the episode when she was having to pause it again, she never thought she'd be annoyed at someone for texting her back instantly.

**From Daniellaaar**

**Erm, not too long, about a month or so. But I flew through season 1. Season 2 is okay, I guess, season 3 is pretty hit and miss, it took me so long to watch that one, but season 4 by far is the best! John Lithgow is amazing in it! **

**To Daniellaaar **

**Hmm. Looking forward to that then. :D**

**From Daniellaaar**

**You should be. :D**

Santana couldn't be sure when she and Dani had stopped talking about _Dexter_, she also couldn't be sure when she had turned her laptop off, all she knew was that it was almost two a.m. and she and Dani were still texting each other, talking about random things. It had been easy to get to that point really, they had both managed to go off on a tangent more than once and had both been left thinking 'how did we get here?' when reading some of the other's messages.

Still, their conversations had left them both amused on several occasions.

Santana could feel her eyes stinging, the bright light from her phone doing little to help her in the darkness of her room.

**From Daniellaaar**

**Anyway, it's been great, but I am exhausted. I'll see you tomorrow. Night Sandbags. :) **

Santana let out a yawn and rubbed her eyes before sending her reply.

**To Daniellaaar**

**Yes Spanish, first thing, hope you're ready for Mr Martinez ;)... Night tiny. :)**

**From Daniellaaar**

**Not that small!... Good night **

She smiled and shook her head slightly, if she had known that calling Dani tiny would have had this much of an affect on her, she would have started doing it long ago she locked her phone and placed it on the side of her bed, settling down to sleep. Thinking once again about the time she had spent talking to Danielle Mitchell and just how much she found herself enjoying it.

* * *

**A **_**very**_** boring chapter, I know. so this was updated a little later than usual because I got a tiny bit of write's block. So I apologise for those things. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed this story and thank you to those who have favourited and or added this story to your alerts**

**P.S: Updates on Chapters will probably slow down a little now, because I am back in education :(. Though some days I am not in for too long so I should hopefully still be able to write on those days and on my weekends. **


	8. Chapter 8

**Eight**

Tuesday went by in a blur with Santana being alone in more classes than she had hoped for yet again. Spanish class had been fun, though that had more to do with the fact that Santana had made jokes about Dani and Mr Martinez, which had only been brought on by the blonde's confession about the Spanish teacher the night before. To credit, Dani had taken everything in her stride and no matter how far Santana had taken the jokes- and she was taking them quite far- Dani had played along with everything that the darker haired girl had said.

Santana had also been happy that day when Dani had shown up in her gym and science class. Yet again, they had been paired up as lab partners by their teacher, Mr. Edwards. But still, the day had been an undoubtedly boring one. They day had finally ended with the first glee rehearsal of the year. Mr Schuester has spent the majority of the lesson talking about how it was 'so great to be back', and how this year was 'definitely the year of The New Directions'.

Their first glee assignment was a fairly easy one, just to get the new school year started. All they had to do was pick and perform a song by someone who they idolised in the music industry. Upon hearing those words Rachel had gone into a frenzy about how she couldn't possibly narrow it down to just one of her idols. Though, everyone knew in the end that she would choose Barbra Streisand.

Santana on the other hand had absolutely no idea what song she was going to pick, or even what avenue she was going to go down with picking her artist- there were a lot of people that Santana would say she idolised within music- but, she wasn't worried, she had until Friday to figure that one out.

Wednesday morning was dull and grey. It was clear to see that Autumn was setting in. Long gone were Santana's short skirts and dresses from the summer. They had been replaced by her collection of skinny jeans and thin sweaters.

That day she had left her house a little later than she usually would, telling herself that it was all Dani's fault; the pair had been up half of the night texting each other once again about nothingness. The conversation had started because of the episode of _Dexter_ that Santana had been watching where the 'Ice Truck Killer' is revealed. Because of her late night she had slept through her alarm for the first time in her life.

She climbed into her car and slammed the door shut. Santana turned her key in her ignition only to be met with the sound of her engine struggling to start. She turned the engine off and tried again and then a third time, having no luck at all. She took a deep breath before she started to hammer her hands on the wheel in frustration, all the while spewing a string of profanities, insulting her car. She heard a light tapping sound on the window beside her, she turned her head slowly, to be greeted by the sight of Dani watching her with a bemused smile on her face and her eyebrow quirked.

Santana felt a slight blush creep up her cheeks at the fact that she had been caught acting like that, especially by Dani. She wound the window down slowly. "Hey, are you okay in there?" Dani said trying her best not to laugh at the other girl, and to her credit, doing rather well.

"Yeah." Santana said, "I'm fine." She was still slight breathless from her recent actions.

"Hmm mmm," Dani said nodding her head, "You seem it." She said sarcastically.

Santana rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh, "I can't get my car to start _and_ I am already setting off later than I would have liked to." Santana continued, "Thanks to you keeping me up half the night with you're nonsense."

"You know, you don't actually _have _to talk to me." Dani said chuckling. _No, but I _want_ to, _Santana thought. Dani sighed slightly, she grabbed her bottom lip between her teeth and tilted her head to the side while she thought for a moment. _That stupid expression again!_ Santana thought as she watched Dani, "Do you want me to drive you to school?" She asked. "I mean, I'm already going that way, it's not like it's going to be a huge problem." She said shrugging her shoulders slightly.

"You'd do that?" She asked, Dani nodded her head, "Do you mind?"

Dani sighed and rolled her eyes, "Of course I mind." She deadpanned, she shook her head and said, "No. Look, if I ever offer to do anything for you or if I ever offer you anything, take it that I don't mind. Okay?" Dani asked.

Santana nodded her head and climbed out of her car. "Thank you." She said.

"How are you feeling today?" Dani asked.

Santana nodded her head, "Pretty good." Santana said honestly, "What about you?"

"Good." Dani said smiling, "I'm great." Dani said.

"You look nice today." Santana said as she looked Dani up and down. The shorter girl had her hair in it's usual style of loose curls, she had a red beanie hat on her head, a white t-shirt with the name 'Bowie' written across it in black, her leather jacket, ripped, black skinny jeans and red Converse.

"Nice as in...?" Dani said trailing off, she wasn't used to getting compliments from Santana, she planned on milking it for everything that it was worth.

"Pretty." Santana admitted.

"Well, thanks." Dani shrugged, "So do you."

"Don't I always?" Santana asked winking at Dani. The shorter girl rolled her eyes as they started walking over to her car. As soon as Dani had started her engine, she turned the heating on. It was unseasonably cold that morning.

The chill leaving goose pimples running up and down your bare skin and leaving clouds of breath as you spoke. Dani plugged her iPod into the wire hanging out of the stereo of her car and put on her play list of 'Car Music' putting it on shuffle and pulling out of her driveway.

oOoOo

Dani could feel herself getting increasingly bored with what the science teacher was saying to the class, she had never cared much for science. Usually she just winged her way through the lesson while leaving all of the harder work to her lab partner. She knew that working with Santana didn't work that way. She had learned that in freshman year.

She could other people around her and Santana making notes on what Mr. Edwards was saying, Dani rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh, she glanced to the clock, she had another 45 minutes of the lesson to endure.

Santana was looking blankly ahead, feigning interest in what the teacher had to say. Dani looked down at their table, taking note of all of the different piece of equipment needed for their first experiment of the year. She realised Santana was paying no attention to her, saw and opportunity and took it. She dipped her index and middle finger into the beaker full of of cold water and moved them slightly. She removed them from the water and flicked them in Santana's direction, splashing her face with water. She saw the girl's jaw tense slightly as she turned her head slowly in the direction of the short girl.

Dani sent Santana a cheeky, beaming smile, which she tried to play off as innocent. The taller girl let out a breathy laugh before repeating Dani's action, splashing the blonde with a small amount of water. Hitting her in the eye more than anywhere else.

Dani shook her head and splashed more water at Santana. That's all it had taken for them to start their mini water fight during the lesson. They only stopped giggling when the sound of Mr. Edwards's voice rang out through the room. "Danielle Mitchell!" He yelled. Of course it had been Dani that had been the one who had gotten caught, it was just her luck.

"Wha... I..."

"Cool it, or get out." He warned pointing between the shorter girl and the door to the classroom.

"Yeah. God Danielle, just cool it." Santana said shaking her head slightly, while sending Dani a look of mock disapproval.

"I hate you." Dani mumbled quietly.

oOoOo

**To Daniellaaar  
****I am so sorry. I totally forgot that I have a glee thing today_._**

Santana sent the text as quickly as she could, hoping that Dani would receive it sooner rather than later.

**From Daniellaaar  
****Don't worry about it, Sandbags... Do you have a way to get home or do you want me to wait around for you?**

Santana furrowed her eyebrows slightly, she was surprised that the girl was willing to wait around for an hour longer than she actually needed to just for the sake of her.

**To Daniellaaar  
No that's fine, I'll get a ride with Quinn... Thank you though. And thank you for this morning!**

Santana's reply came almost instantly.

**From Daniellaaar  
****Oh, okay then... It's okay don't worry about it. Talk later?**

**To Daniellaaar  
Or we could talk to each other right now? I'm not singing** today.

No sooner had Santana put her phone back in her pocket when it was buzzing again. She pulled it out of her pocket quickly.

**From Daniellaaar  
No it will have to be later... I'm just getting in me car so I'm gonna be driving... I'd rather not crash my car.**

Santana rolled her eyes, before writing another text to the shorter girl.

**To Daniellaaar  
Fine... Text me when you get home?**

**From Daniellaaar  
I will... No leave me alone, you're a danger to society making me text while driving.**

Santana smiled slightly as she walked into the choir room. She took a seat in the far corner of the room, sitting down next to Quinn. She just hoped the the hour would be over quickly. She didn't want to sit through three performances that were totally predictable. She knew the artists that Puck, Mercedes and Kurt would pick. She assumed that everyone did.

oOoOo

"Soooo." Quinn said prolonging the word slightly as she and Santana climbed into her car. "Where you texting Brittany just then?" She asked smiling weakly at the other girl.

As soon as Dani had gotten home she had text Santana, starting yet another one of their nonsense filled conversations.

Santana shook her head. "No. We have been texting, obviously. But not too much. I did text her this morning though to see how she was and how she was settling into Washington, she seemed fine."

"Oh..." Quinn said, "Who was it then?"

"Dani." Santana said quietly.

"Dani?" Quinn asked quirking her eyebrow.

"Yeah, that's what I said." Santana replied.

"Wait not Dani as in Danielle Mitchell?" Santana nodded her head. "But you hate her."

Santana rolled her eyes at how many people believed she and Dani had a true hatred for each other. "I don't hate her." She said, "But yeah her. She was the one who comforted me the weekend that Britt broke up with me." She admitted, "She seemed to understand what I was going through. She didn't force me to talk about it. But it was an option... Still is I think."

"Oh." Quinn said.

"She's actually really nice." Santana informed her.

"I told you she was nice years ago." Quinn said, "She's been in my English class since Freshman year, I talk to her a lot." Quinn chuckled, "It was only you out of me, Britt and you, that didn't like her." Santana rolled her eyes, "So what was she saying, anything interesting?"

Santana shook her head, "No. I was just saying that I had glee so I'd have to get a ride with you and not her. She got me to school today after my car wouldn't start."

"So why were you smiling so much at that?" Quinn asked.

"I wasn't smil..."

"Oh please, you were grinning like the Chesher Cat."

For the majority of the car ride Santana staid silent, she'd check her phone every now and again to see if Dani had messaged her, even though she knew she would have felt it buzz had the blonde tried to contact her. Quinn kept watching her from the corner of her eyes and smiling whenever Santana sighed and out her phone away.

When the two girls pulled up outside of Santana's house they saw Dani sitting on the front porch of her house with one of her guitars. Santana couldn't stop the smile that made it's way on to her face when she saw Dani.

Dani turned her head in the direction of the car and smiled when she saw the two girls.

"Hey." She said brightly, she was wearing her red beanie hat again from that morning, Santana couldn't help but think how cute the other girl looked wearing it.

"Hi." Santana said quietly.

Quinn waved once in Dani's direction before saying, "I won't lie, I only got out of the car to ask Dani what chapters we need to read of _Animal Farm_ for tomorrow." She said.

"Chapters one to three." Dani said. "I've already done that." She admitted.

"You're such a nerd." Santana scoffed. Dani smiled slightly looking up at Santana.

Quinn looked between the two girls before saying, "Okay well thank you. I'll make sure to get that done as soon as I get in." She said before saying a quick goodbye to Santana and getting in her car heading back to the private estate in Lima where she lived.

Santana walked over to where Dani was and sat down beside her on the porch. "So, how was glee?" Dani asked, strumming her guitar lightly.

"It was okay." Santana said, "Mercedes sang a Whitney Huston song, Puck sang a Billy Joel song, and Kurt sang a Bette Middler song." She said.

"Oh which ones?" Dai asked.

"Mercedes sang, One Moment In Time, Puck sang My Life and Kurt sang Wind Beneath My Wings. Obviously." Santana said.

Dani chuckled, "Well that sounds extremely exciting." She replied sarcastically.

"It was." Santana smiled at her, she watched the girl for a moment, as she played a few chords on her guitar. "Are you not cold?" She asked, Dani shook her head slightly as she continued to strum her guitar, only mildly annoying Santana, "How?" She asked.

"Well, I've got my hat on, and my jacket, oh and I have a cup of coffee next to me." She explained.

"Nice." Santana smiled, "So what are you singing, anything good?" She asked.

"Well, I guess that depends on if you like Velvet Underground." Dani said. Santana quirked her eyebrow at the other girl, "The band?" Dani said. Santana shook her head slowly, "Well anyway, I heard a Strawberry Switchblade cover of one of their songs and fell in love with the song even more, so I decided to learn it." Dani explained.

"What's a Strawberry Switchblade?"

"A Duo from the eighties, they're pretty good. A find of mine from just clicking on the recommenced video links at the side of the YouTube page."

"Oh...Well, let's hear it then." Santana said, Dani turned her mouth down slightly, "Oh, come on Dani." Santana said. "I know you like to sing, I've heard you mumbling in the car...I want to know if there is a hidden Christina Aguilera in there."

Dani chuckled, "I assure you, there isn't." She said.

"Daniellaaar, sing!." Santana said smiling slightly. The shorter girl rolled her eyes and started to play the latest song she had decide to learn.

"_Sunday mornin', praise the dawnin'  
It's just a restless feelin', by my side  
Early dawnin', Sunday mornin'  
It's just the wasted years so close behind__"_

Santana felt her eyes widen slightly as Dani started to sing. It was obvious that she was musical, just by the amount of instruments that the girl owned, but Santana would have never expected her to sound like this when singing.

"_Watch out, the world's behind you  
There's always someone around you, who will call  
It's nothin' at all__"_

Dani made singing seem effortless, Santana couldn't help but wonder why she wasn't showing off her talents by taking part in the glee club, or even any of the musicals that the school put on.

"_Sunday mornin' and I'm fallin'  
I've got a feelin', I don't want to know  
Early dawnin', Sunday mornin'  
It's all the streets you crossed, not so long ago__"_

Santana couldn't keep her eyes off of Dani while she was singing. The girl had talent to spare. She watched the way that Dani's hands moved easily on the guitar.

"_Watch out, the world's behind you  
There's always someone around you, who will call  
It's nothin' at all  
Watch out, the world's behind you  
There's always someone around you, who will call  
It's nothin' at all__"_

"_Sunday mornin'  
Sunday mornin'  
Sunday mornin'  
Sunday mornin'__"_

When Dani had finished her song, she gave a weak smile and a shrug, "That's it. It's still a little messy because I've _just_ learned it but..." She said trailing off.

"Dani you can sing!" Santana said.

She nodded her head slightly, "Erm, I already know but thank you all the same."

"You know?" Santana said, Dani nodded her head again, "What do you mean you know?" She asked chuckling slightly.

"Yes, I know that I can sing." Dani said, "I've recorded myself singing in the past a couple of times and I've listened to it back, people have told me numerous times that I have a good voice _and_ I can actually hear myself when I'm singing." Dani explained, "I mean, I know I'm not the best but..."

"I think I'd disagree with you on the last bit." Santana admitted. "You're like, ridiculously talented."

"Now that is something new to hear." Dani said smiling, "So thank you very much for that one."

"So, how come you don't sing around people very often then? Is it a nervous thing?"

Dani shook her head, "No." She said, "Not really. Obviously I get nervous before I sing in front of people, I think that's a natural thing, but that's not why I don't. I just don't want to annoy people. Some people have said the constant singing and playing can get annoying. That's why I only do it around friends or when I'm alone."

"So, I'm a friend now?" Santana asked, Santana had started to consider Dani a friend, she just hadn't expected the blonde to feel the same.

Dani nodded her head slowly, "Yeah. I'd say so... Wouldn't you?"

Santana nodded her head, "Yeah definitely."

Dani saw a Santana shiver slightly, "Do you want to come inside for a cup of coffee? You look a little cold."

Santana nodded her head slowly, "Yes please." She said, the two girls stood up slowly and made their way into Dani's house.

As Dani and Santana walked past the living room, Dani's dad's voice rang out, "DJ, is that you?"

"Yeah." Dani said walking into the living room, with Santana following silently behind her. Santana looked between Dani and her dad. If she didn't know any better she would have sworn that Dani was no relation to him at all.

They were opposites, Dani had big, brown eyes while her dad had almond shaped icy blue eyes, his hair was short and very blonde, almost white, naturally Dani had darker hair. His sharp features made him look slightly intimidating. While Dani's soft features always made her appear friendly and approachable.

Even though he was sitting down, Santana could tell that he was a tall man, broad too, again the exact opposite of his short daughter.

All told, Dani and her father looked about as alike as a nettle and a rose.

"Erm... I've got a friend with me, that's okay right?" Dani asked.

"Yeah, that's fine... Who is it?" He asked.

"It's Santana Lopez, from next door." She said pointing to the girl standing beside her. Santana gave an awkward wave to the man.

"Oh." he said, he looked between the two girls, before saying, "Have fun then."

Dani nodded her head, "Yeah we will..." She paused before saying, "Where's mom?"

"She's in the kitchen."

"Okay, I'll see you a little later. " Dani said smiling slightly, her dad paid no more attention to his daughter, turning his head to focus back onto the TV. before leaving the living room. Dani rolled her eyes at her dad before she and Santana left the living room and headed down the hallway towards the kitchen.

"So... DJ?" Santana asked, Dani nodded her head.

"Yeah... DJ, it's what my dad calls me sometimes." She explained.

"Why?" She said.

"First name, Danielle, Middle name, Jennifer." She shrugged, "DJ."

"You are literally one of the first people I have ever met who didn't shy away from telling me their middle name." Santana said.

"It's only a name." She said, "Besides, I don't really mind it all that much."

Dani pushed the door open and allowed Santana to walk into the kitchen beside her, though the taller girl stopped in her tracks when she noticed a brunette woman sitting at the kitchen island with a piece of paper laid out in front of her.

"Hey momma!" Dani greeted her mom happily as the two girls walked into the kitchen, Dani's mom beamed at the two girls, Santana had thought that they looked alike on picture, but the resemblance was even more striking in person.

"Hey, sweetie." Her mom said, "I thought you'd be outside longer than that." She said.

"I planned on it, but I ran into a friend." Dani said pointing at Santana who stood behind her shyly. "This is Santana."

"Maribel's daughter, right?" Dani's mom asked pointing at the brunette, Santana nodded her head slowly. "You can tell, hi." She said.

"Uh, hey. Mrs Mitchell."

Dani's mom shook her head and smiled, "Please, call me Jennifer" She said. Santana smiled slightly.

"Okay. Hey, Jennifer."

"So what are you two girls planning on doing?" Dani's mom asked, as Santana sat herself at the kitchen island slowly, leaving a chair in between her and Jennifer, hoping Dani would soon sit there.

"I'm just gonna make some coffee and then...I'm not really sure... What do you wanna do?" She asked.

Santana shrugged her shoulders, "I'm not really that bothered, we can do whatever."

"Dani go sit with your friend, I'll make the coffee." Her mom said standing from where she was sat. She turned on the coffee marker before looking at Santana and smiling brightly, "How do you have your coffee, dear?"

"Two sugars, please." Santana said quietly. Dani quirked her eyebrow at Santana before looking at her mom and scoffing slightly, sitting down next to the other girl.

"Why are you pretending to be shy?" Dani asked in a low voice so only Santana could hear her. Santana shrugged her shoulders slightly, Dani chuckled and shook her head, Dani's mom looked between the two girls smiling slightly. Dani turned her attention back to the older woman, who quickly looked away from the two girls so they wouldn't know she had been watching them.

"So Santana how are your parents?" She asked as she laid out three cups.

"Oh, they're great thanks." Santana said, "My papi's been working hell of a lot more recently, mainly night shifts." She sighed "And my mami is fine, still working for the bank." She paused before asking, "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm fantastic thank you." She said, smiling the same bright smile as her daughter. "Just working out some financing." She said, "Got to get ready to leave for Columbus yet again on Friday morning." She rolled her eyes slightly.

Dan chuckled, "If you hate it so much just make dad go alone." Dani said, "I'm sure he could survive for a few days without you."

Jennifer rolled her eyes, "You don't know your father as well as you think you do." She sighed. "No. I don't mind going, makes more money, keeps a roof over our heads."

"Yeah but you always complain about having to go." Dani said.

"I know that but, Dani, sometimes in life you just have to do things you don't want to do." She said in soft voice. "If I could stay in Lima and do the same job and makes as much money, I would... I can't say the same for your father, he wants us to move to Columbus, but, there's no place I'd rather be than here with you and Will." She said smiling at her daughter.

Santana watched the interaction between Dani and her mom. It was easy to see where Dani got both her looks and her caring personality from.

oOoOo

The two girls had spent more time than expected with Dani's mom. Jennifer had shared a few stories about herself and Santana's mom from when they were roughly the same age as them.

It turned out that Maribel and Jennifer had met while they were both studying at Ohio State University. It was safe to say that they both had some stories to tell about each other, and not all good.

"Your mom's nice." Santana said as she dropped herself down onto Dani's bed.

"Yeah she is, she's really nice." Dani said, joining the taller girl. Dani set the tub of ice cream down on the bed, opening it up before handing Santana a spoon and tucking in to the caramel flavoured side of the ice cream.

"You're a lot like her." Santana smiled.

"You really think?" Dani asked, Santana nodded her head, "Well thank you." She said, feeling slightly proud to be like her mom.

"She's like, _really_ pretty, too."

"Yeah, she's kind of beautiful."

"You do realise that you look _exactly_ like her, right?"

"You really think?" Dani had always thought of her mom as being an extremely pretty woman, possibly more than just that. And in the past people had said how alike they were, it had never failed to bring a smile to her face.

"Definitely, I think you have softer features but, it's still there."

"Thank you very much." Dani said smiling.

"You are very welcome." There was a beat of silence before Santana said, "So, if you're named after your mom, is Will named after your dad?"

Dani shook her head, shoveling another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. "No." She said thought her mouthful, she swallowed and said, "Adriana is named after my dad." Dani explained, "Dad is called Adrian, and wanted the first born to be named after him, when they got a girl, they just added 'Ana' onto the end." Dani said. "So when my mom found out she was pregnant with me, it was a case of 'oh we'll name this one after you'." Dani said, "But mom didn't want me to have the same first name as her, so she suggested Danielle Jennifer and dad went for it." She said, "I don't know why Danielle, I think they both just liked it, but I'm not sure."

"I'd like to know what they would have done had you been a boy." Santana said chuckling, "I mean, Jennifer works for a girl but..."

"They'd have probably gone with her middle name," Dani said.

"Which is?" Santana asked before taking a chunk out of the vanilla flavoured ice cream on the side closest to her.

"Leigh." Dani replied.

"Oh... So, who's your brother named after then?" Santana asked.

"Will is named after our grandfather's."

"Both of them?"

Dani nodded her head, "Yeah weirdly, they're both called William."

"Wow... I think you got the best deal." Santana said. Dani smiled slightly. "No, I'm serious. I actually really like your name." Santana said.

Dani nodded her head, "I don't hate it." She admitted, "I think that Dani is just easier." She said, "Oh and I think Danielle sounds way too formal sometimes."

Santana smiled, "I didn't only mean the Danielle part, I meant all of it." She said, "And I disagree with you on it sounding too formal." She smiled, "I think that it suits you perfectly."

They sat smiling at each other for a brief moment before Dani said, "So what about you? Are you named after anybody?"

Santana nodded her head, "Yes, but, like with you, it's my middle name." She said, "I'm named after one of my aunts." She explained, "Carmen's middle name is Maribel, like our mom's name, and my middle name is Gabrielle."

Dani's eyes widened slightly, "Like the singer, with the eye patch?"

"Trust you to say that." Santana said before helping herself to a spoonful of of ice cream from Dani's side of the tub.

"Excuse me!" Dani said, faining shock and offense "You said you wanted the vanilla not the caramel."

"Maybe I changed my mind." Santana said through her mouthful. She looked at Dani and furrowed her eyebrows, only just realising that the shorter girl had her hat on still. "Why are you still wearing your hat?" Santana asked looking Dani.

"Oh, because it's comfy and it looks good on me."

_That it does_, Santana quickly shook the thoughts from her head not knowing where they came from. She knew Dani was pretty, she had always thought that, but still, there was no time or room for those thoughts.

"If you say so." She scoffed.

"Erm I know so."

oOoOo

"Shit, what time is it?" Santana asked, she hadn't realised how dark it had gotten until the screen on Dani's laptop went black as the credits at the end of the second movie they had watched that night started to roll.

Dani grabbed her phone from inside the drawer and unlocked the screen, squinting slightly at the brightness. "It's a little after ten-thirty." Dani said.

"Oh no." Santana said quietly.

"What's wrong?" Dani asked.

"Nothing, really..." Santana said the taller girl had made no effort to move from Dani's bed and instead pulled the pillow closer to herself. "It's just, my mami is going to go crazy she doesn't know where I am... But, I don't wanna move." She admitted. "You're bed is _way _too comfy."

"Comfiest bed in the whole house." Dani said with a shrug.

"Do you sat that to all of the girls to get them in your bed?"

"Hmm first time round I don't think I even had to say that to you." Dani chuckled, Santana rolled her eyes at the shorter girl. "Come on, I'll show you out." She said, she climbed out of her bed, pulling Santana along with her.

Dani laced their fingers together as they made their way to the front door. They walked together in a comfortable silence, Dani had started to swing their arms between them slightly.

The two girls stopped by Dani's front door. "Okay, well I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." Santana said.

Dani nodded her head, "Yes. You will." She said, there was a beat of silence before Dani said, "Do you want another ride to school tomorrow?"

Santana contemplated Dani's offer before saying, "Erm, yeah sure... Well if I can't get my car started." Dani nodded her head slowly, "If I can get my car going, I'll give you a lift." She said.

"So what are we car pooling from now on?" Dani asked.

"Yeah. I don't see why not." Santana said, "It makes sense, it would save us a little bit of money on gas, I suppose and we could do alternative days so it's not like one of us is always driving the other around."

"Yeah. Okay." Dani said, she pulled Santana towards her and brought her in for a hug, that lasted a little longer than their others had. Dani let go of Santana and already, the taller girl missed the contact.

"Alright then. I'll see you tomorrow." Santana said.

Dani nodded, "You will... Sweet dreams, Sandbags." Dani smiled.

"You too, Daniellaaar." Santana replied as she walked across the garden to her own house, getting ready for the onslaught from her mother about why she was back home so late in the day.

* * *

**Sorry foe the late update, life's getting pretty crazy. I was actually going to try and update yesterday, but had a pretty shit day, so you're getting the chapter now. Hope you like it. The song used in this chapter is **_**Sunday Morning **_**by Velvet Underground- though the Strawberry Switchblade version of the song is also amazing, you should listen to both versions**

**P.S: I am already in the process of writing the next two chapters, so hopefully they will be uploaded soon. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Nine**

Thursday had been just as eventful as Wednesday; Santana had actually been able to get her car started, getting both her and Dani to and from school. Because Santana had glee rehearsal, Dani had gone to the movies with her small gaggle of friends. When Santana had got home, her house had been completely empty, her mom had left her a note saying she had gone out for dinner with her friends from work, she had guessed that her dad was still at the hospital.

She had been more than bored without any company. She had kept looking out of the window waiting for Dani to get back home. When the blonde finally climbed out of her friend's car at around six p.m. Santana sent her a text asking her to go over there. Dani hadn't taken much convincing and by six-fifteen she was knocking on Santana's door.

They had decided to watch Santana's _Game of Thrones _DVD's Dani had never seen it, but had said how she wanted to. On hearing that Santana had rushed to get her season one box set. Dani had enjoyed what she had seen of the show, but a lot of the time, she found herself watching Santana as she spent most of her time swooning over Cersei Lannister. Dani had much preferred Daenerys Targaryen; both her character on her looks.

Though Dani had said that she hadn't minded the state that Santana kept her bedroom at first, after roughly three episodes of _Game of Thrones_, her urges to clean had taken over her. She had apologised to Santana for it, though, the taller girl hadn't actually minded at all. If anything, she was thankful that Dani had sprung into action, it had motivated her to do the same, resulting in her helping the blonde tidy. Santana had made some good natured jokes about Dani's neatness. dubbing her Monica Geller for the rest of the night. Yet another nickname Santana could add to her catalogue of things to call Dani.

Daniellaaar was definitely still the forerunner though.

Dani had goen back home not long after that, at around ten-thirty, after they had once again spent longer with each other than they had originally planned. It was easy for Santana to lose track of time around Dani. Time just seemed to speed by whenever she spent time with the blonde. Santana had settled into bed not long after Dani had gone home. The shorter girl had promised that she wouldn't keep Santana up half of the night with text messages and that she would allow her to get some sleep for once.

Still, there was something that wasn't going to let Santana get a full nights sleep. Santana sat bolt up right in her bed when she heard her phone buzzing loudly across her bedside table. Her heart was pounding in her chest. She looked at her phone and squinted at the bright light, glaring at it slightly. As if her death glare would suddenly make it stop.

She knew that someone was calling her, and she knew who she wanted it to be. Even though Dani had said she wouldn't interrupt her sleep, she still wanted to see her name flashing across her screen.

When she saw Brittany's name, her heart skipped a beat, the blonde hadn't been in touch with her all day, which was a very unusual thing. Even when Brittany was in Lima and only lived ten minutes away from Santana, she was texting her can calling her.

_Typical _Santana thought, _the one night that Dani allows me some sleep, Brittany comes back around to keep me up at night. Yet again. _

She took a deep breath and answered the call, she hadn't heard Brittany's voice since she had left. All she had done was message her. She was more than a little worried about why Brittany would feel the need to call her this late at night.

_"Heyyy! How are you?" _Brittany said from the other end of the line, she sounded happy, maybe a little too happy for that time of the night and her words were coming out slightly slurred. It was obvious that she had been drinking.

"Hey Britt, I'm fine." Santana said, it wasn't a total lie, she was fine. She'd definitely felt worse. "How are you?" She asked through a yawn.

_"I'm fine!"_ She shouted happily, making Santana wince slightly, she moved the phone away from her ear for a brief moment, before placing it back against her ear. _"I'm at a part. I just wanted to see if you were okay?" _

Santana sighed, feeling a little sad, _She's only calling me because she's drunk, _"What the hell are you doing at a party on a school night? That's not like you." Santana said.

_"Oh, we have tomorrow off! A strike about the teacher's wages or something!"_

"Oh." Santana said quietly, she didn't quite believe that this early on into the school year Brittany's teachers were already going on strike over their wages. "Are you enjoying yourself?"

_"Yes!"_ Brittany said, _"This party is so much fun!"_

"That's good." Santana said, "Though I didn't only mean the party," she explained. "Are you enjoying yourself out there in general?" Santana asked, she didn't know what she wanted to hear more; that Brittany loved everything about Washington, or that she hated it and wanted to get back to Lima as soon as possible.

_"Yes!" _Brittany said in the same excited tone as before, _"Washington is _amazing _Santana. I really love it here. The people are so nice. I've made lots of new friends._"

"That's great Britt." Santana said, not really knowing what to say on the matter. The blonde sounded more than just happy to be where she was right now. Which, Santana was happy about; of course she wanted Brittany to be happy, no matter where her life took her, she wanted Brittany to be able to smile and enjoy herself. But still, hearing it didn't help Santana's case in the slightest.

Santana was coping, and she was happy that she had someone to talk to about all of this, she would never stop thanking Dani for what she did for her last week. But apparently, Brittany was living the high life.

_"Are you having fun?" _Brittany asked, Santana could hear the innocence in her voice.

Santana smiled as she thought about all of the stuff she had done since Brittany had been gone, even though Brittany couldn't see her, she nodded her head slowly. "Yeah, I am." Santana said, honestly, she was having fun, lots of fun. She knew that spending time with Dani was going to be good for her. The girl was carefree and laid back about pretty much everything.

_"Well I'm really happy to hear that."_ Brittany said. Santana could hear people starting to get a little noisy on the other end of the phone.

"Anyway, Britt. I really wish that I could stay and chat, but I have to be up early tomorrow for school. So I am going to have to go to sleep now."

"_Okay Sanny. Good night. I love youuuuuuu! So much. And I really miss you!" _

"Me too." Santana replied dryly, just as she had the night a week ago. "Bye."

Santana hung up and sat in the silence of her own bedroom, staring blankly into the darkness. The realisation of just how long it had been since she had seen Brittany hitting her like a ton of bricks.

Santana took a deep breath and rolled her eyes slightly, she didn't like what she was about to do, but it was the only thing she could think to do in that moment. She grabbed her phone and went into her contacts list. She clicked on the familiar name, one that she had seen hell of a lot of in the past week.

Usually, she would just text this person, though, that night she couldn't stop herself from pushing the 'call' button.

The phone only rang three times before she got her answer. _"Hey Santana." _A raspy voice said, _"So much for letting each other sleep." _She joked.

Dani's voice sounded hell of a lot raspier when she had just woken up. Santana found herself strangely loving how it sounded. "Dani, I'm so sorry, but I need to talk to you."

"_Hey it's okay, don't worry about it." _Dani said, _"What's wrong?" _Dani asked, concern filling her tone of voice just like it had that night last week.

"It's nothing major, I'm fine... I guess." Santana said.

She heard Dani sigh from over the line, _"Do you want to talk about this in person?" _She asked,

"Yes." Santana replied with a small sigh.

"_Okay then." _Dani said softly, _"Can you meet me in my back yard in about ten minutes?" _

"Yeah. That's no problem." Santana said. She quickly hung up the phone and jumped out of her bed. She pulled on a pair of old sneakers and an overly large sweater. She sat on the edge of her bed, waiting for the right time to go to Dani's.

She felt guilty that she had woken Dani up at this hour, but the girl had said if she ever needed someone to talk to, she'd be there. To make herself feel a little better, Santana told herself this, and that in actual fact, Dani wouldn't mind it all that much. She just hoped that she was right in telling herself that and that she hadn't annoyed the other girl.

Dani was fast becoming the closest thing she had to a best friend with Brittany being away. It had only been a week, but it was the truth.

Around ten minutes later, Santana left her house, making sure that she was quiet in opening and closing the door. She trudged along the yard and walked down the side of their houses, to walk around to the back of Dani's house. She pushed the gate open slowly, hoping it wouldn't squeak and disturb anyone.

When she walked into Dani's garden, she saw her sitting on a blanket on the ground near the back of the garden, there were bright lights around Dani, and a pond just next to her. The blonde was pulling small handfulls of grass from the ground and dropping them into the water.

Her hair was pulled into a high pony tail, leaving small bits down to frame her face. From what Santana could see the girl had no makeup on her face at all, but still she looked great and Santana knew that. She rolled her eyes at how bad she looked compared to the other girl. Santana was starting to think that way a lot around Dani lately. A couple a months ago, Santana wouldn't have cared how she looked compared to the girl.

Dani looked up from the grass and smiled softly when she saw Santana approaching her. She held a cup out to the other girl, who took it from her silently as she sat down on the blanket beside her.

"Whenever you're ready." Dani said quietly, she'd sit there all night if she had to, just waiting for Santana to get whatever was troubling her off of her chest. She didn't want to push her into spilling everything.

"It's Brittany... again."

Dani nodded her head slowly, "Yeah, I kind of figured that much out just from the phone call." She said, "So, what's happened this time around... Is she okay?" She asked, before taking a sip of her coffee. Her eyes scanned Santana's face, trying to read her expression.

Santana brought her own cup up to her lips and took a sip of it, burning her mouth and tongue slightly. It surprised her how Dani could drink her coffee while it was that hot without flinching.

"Yeah, she's fine." Santana said, "She just drunk dialled me." Santana said, "Honestly, had she been sober I don't think she'd have bothered. She hadn't been in touch with me all day and then when I finally hear from her, she's wasted."

"What did she say?" Dani asked.

Santana sighed, "She told me that she loved me and that she misses me." She admitted.

"And that's a bad thing?" Dani asked, feeling slightly confused, she thought that Santana would have wanted to hear something like that. Brittany always could have said worse to her.

"It's not exactly a good thing." Santana explained, "Hearing her saying stuff like that to me, doesn't exactly help with the whole moving on process." She said turning her head to look at Dani. "I didn't say it back to her." She admitted, "I don't think I can."

"Why not?"

Santana shrugged, "I do still love her, I know I do." Santana admitted, "I haven't told her that since the break up. I just keep saying 'me too'." She continued, "I just don't think that it's fair that she keeps doing stuff like that." She explained, "She made the decision to call it quits. She broke my heart. What right does she have to make me feel like this, all over again?"

"Yeah but, by the looks of things, she obviously didn't want to br..." Dani started.

"Then she shouldn't have." Santana said cutting her off, "Her telling me that she loves me doesn't change anything. It just makes all of this harder on me. How the hell am I supposed to move on from her, if I have her telling me that she still loves me?"

Dani shrugged her shoulders slightly, "Do you want to move on from her?" Dani asked, "Because if not, maybe you should tell her how you feel. You might be able to try and salvage something."

Santana shook her head, "I wanted to try and do the whole long distance thing, she didn't." Santana said, "I've told you all of this before, Dan." Dani tilted her head to the side slightly. "It's over." She said, with full certainty in her voice, "I can't see us ever getting back together."

Dani grabbed Santana's hand and entwined their fingers together, she gave her hand a light reassuring squeeze. "I promise you. It'll get easier."

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

Dani shook her head, "I'm not. I never would." She admitted. "I know that it seems like the end of the world right now. But one day, you are going to wake up and all of this will just be a memory." She said. "And I honestly believe that if you and Brittany are supposed to be together, then you will get back together at some point in time. Weather it's a week from now, a year from now. Or seven years down the line. If it's meant to be it will be." Dani said. "But for now. Try not to hold on too tightly, try to let go, because you never know; it just might work out in your favour if you do." Dani sighed before saying, "Are you gonna be okay?"

Santana nodded her head slowly, "Yeah but can we just sit and talk about stuff for a little bit?"

Dani nodded her head, "Yeah we can talk about anything you want." She said.

Santana turned her mouth down, "Why are you being so nice to me?" Santana asked.

The question had taken Dani by surprise, when she had told Santana that she would talk about whatever the taller girl wanted, she hadn't thought that this would be the first thing to leave Santana's mouth.

"Because we're friends?" Dani said, "And you called me and said you needed to talk." Dani admitted.

Santana shook her head slightly, "I'm not only talking about tonight." She said, "I mean, why were you so nice to me last week, why did you sit and comfort me? We weren't friends back then." Santana said.

Dani bit her lip before saying, "Let's just say, I've been where you are right now. And I know how shitty I felt. So when I saw you crying last week, I knew it had to be something big." Dani said, "Let's face it, you're Santana Lopez, you don't cry." Dani said. "So I asked what was wrong and you told me. And when you did, I remembered what it felt like for me when I got dumped. So, I offered you a shoulder to cry on. I know that I needed someone to talk to when I was feeling low. But I didn't really have anyone. I didn't want you to feel the same." She admitted with a shrug. "And you know, I'm actually just a nice person sometimes."

Santana nodded her head, "Yeah I'm starting to realise that."

"And?" Dani asked.

Santana smiled at the other girl, "And I'm happy that you are. You could have easily made me feel worse last week." Dani shook her head.

"I wouldn't even do that to the people who I hate." Dani admitted, "So I wasn't going to do it to you." She shrugged.

"You're a really good friend to me." Santana said, "And I am actually really thankful that I get to call you that."

"Yeah I know... I'm kind of awesome." Dani joked smiling.

Santana sighed, "I hate to admit this," she said, "but you really are." She agreed with a small smile. Dani picked up her cup of coffee and drank a mouthful of it before screwing her face up slightly. "What's wrong?" Santana asked.

"My coffee's going cold, you should probably drink yours before it gets too bad." Dani advised. Santana quickly drank her coffee and handed Dani her cup. The girl took it from her and placed it on the ground next to her own.

"So is there anything troubling you, young Daniellaaar?" Santana said, "All we ever seem to do is talk about me."

Dani smiled and said, "No. I'm totally fine, and I don't mind. I've told you."

"Yeah, but that doesn't stop me from feeling bad about the fact that I dragged you out here tonight just to talk about my ex-girlfriend." Santana said. "So, if you ever need to talk to me about anything. Know that I'm here for you, too." Santana said.

Dani nodded her head, "I will. Thanks." Dani sighed, "So are we done here or are you still wanting to talk, because I really don't mind either way."

"No." Santana said quietly, "I'll leave you to sleep now."

"Are you sure?" Dani asked, "Because I really don't mind staying awake as long as you need me. That's why I made the coffee, just in case." Dani admitted.

"Ahh so you just want to keep me awake so you won't be alone." She joked.

Dani nodded her head, "That's exactly what it is." Dani said sarcastically. "But seriously, Santana if y..."

"I'll be okay." Santana said, she smiled at Dani reassuringly. It felt odd to Santana that she was the one reassuring Dani that she would in all actual fact be okay. She didn't know who long it would take her to be fully okay. If ever. She just hoped it'd be sooner rather than later.

Dani stood up pulling Santana up with her, their hands were still laced together, Dani used it to her advantage, pulling Santana towards her, she only let go of Santana's hand to wrap her arms around her.

"I hope you will be okay." Dani said.

Santana wrapped her arms around Dani's waist, pulling the girl even closer to her. "Thank you once again for being here for me." Santana mumbled into Dani's neck.

Dani shook her head, ""It's okay. You're welcome to my company." Santana reluctantly let go of Dani. When Dani felt Santana's arms move from around her waist, she let go and stepped backwards. "I'll see you tomorrow." Dani said.

Santana nodded her head, "Yup. You're driving." She said.

"I know. And I can't wait." Dani said dryly.

Dani walked back around to the front of her house with Santana. She walked to the porch and didn't go back inside until she knew the brunette was in her own house.

Santana quickly walked back into her house, locking the door behind her, she hadn't realised how cold it actually was that night until she climbed back into the warmth of her bed, pulling the covers all the way up to her chin.

She closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind of all thoughts of Brittany, leaving room for only one thought and one alone.

_The world needs more people like Danielle Mitchell_.

* * *

**Okay so a bit of a faster update-and a shorter chapter- but I got two days off this week as well as my weekend, rather than just the one day off and my weekend. And I didn't use the days for study time like I was supposed to, instead I wrote this chapter and got a tattoo, that hardly anyone knows about. **

**Moving on! I really hope that you liked this chapter, please tell me what you think and I am sorry if this is a boring one, I feel like they all are at the minute. But I am just trying to set the story at the minute. I assure you they will get better as the two girls get closer. **

**Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed this story and thank you to those of you who have favourited this story and or added it to your alerts, I really appreciate it. :D **


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